IlC 233 

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[Copy 1 






RECREATION SURVEY 




OF 



CINCINNATI 





JUVENILE PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION 

DECEMBER 1, 1913 



RECREATION SURVEY 



OF 



CINCINNATI 



Juvenile Protective Association 
December 1, 1913 



^ 
'^■a. 






TABLE OF CONTENTS 



P.ige 

INTRODUCTION 3 



GENERAL SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 4 

SECTION A. RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES -... 10 

Activities of School Children 10 

Activities of Adults ,. .' 15 

SECTION B. THE VARIOUS FORAIS OF RECREATION 15 

Home Recreation 15 

Private Recreation (Social Clubs, Church and Philanthropic Agencies) 21 

Commercial Recreation ' 25 

Public Recreation. 35 

The Colored Qiild and Youth 41 

SECTION C. ADMINISTRATION 42 

Present Administration 42 

Defects in the Present System of Administration 48 

Suggested Administration 44 

SECTION D. SUGGESTIONS FOR AN ADEQUATE .RECREA- 
TION PROGRAM FOR CINCINNATI 4G 

General Recreation Program for the Future 40 

Immediate Recreational Needs of Cincinnati 47 



JfIN 17 1914 



Juvenile Protective Association 
of Cincinnati. 

Established 1912. 
(Endorsed by the Council of Social Agencies.) 



PURPOSE. 



1. To investigate and to suppress and prevent the conditions and 
to prosecute persons contributing to the dependency, truancy, or de- 
linquency of children, and to promote tlie welfare of children in every 
respect. 

2. To co-operate with the Juvenile Court, Compulsory Education 
Department, State Factory Inspector, and all other child-helping 
agencies, and to increase their efficiency wherever possible. 

3. To promote the study of child problems, and by systematic 
agitation, through the press and otherwise, to create a permanent public 
sentiment for the establishment of wholesome agencies, such as parks, 
playgrounds, gymnasiums, free baths, vacation schools, communal 
social centers and the like. 

OFFICERS AND EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 

Dr. Albert H. Freiberg President 

Rev. Fr.^nk Nelson Vice-President 

Mr. Richard Crane Vice-President 

Mr. Frank Bell Vice-President 

Mr. Clifford B. Wright Treasurer 

Miss Helen S. Trounstine Secretary 

Dr. Boris D. Bogen, Mr. Guy Mallon, 

Miss Edith Campbell, . Mr. Wm. J. Norton, 
Mrs. Martin Fischer, Prof. W. H. Parker, 

Mrs. Clarence Mack, Mr. J. O. White, 



Miss Helen S. Trounstine, Director, 
Office, 804 Neave Building. 



The Association is supported by voluntary subscription and 
contributions. 



INTRODUCTION. 
Purpose of Report. 

lliis report eml)odies the results of a six months' study of local 
recreational conditions. It is given to the public with the hope 
that it will stimulate interest in recreational matters, and establish 
the importance of an adequate recreation program in any plan for 
.a better and finer Cincinnati or for a happier and more successful 
life for the least of its citizens. 

The part played by recreation in the daily routine of every in- 
dividual of the community has often been discussed theoretically. 
Social workers have frequently spoken of the social significance of 
uncontrolled pleasure. Xo one knew definitely, however, the recrea- 
tional conditions of the city as a whole. Believing- that knowledge 
based on facts is the basis of all intelligent action, the Juvenile 
Protective Association undertook to secure this information through 
careful investig^ation as its contribution toward public welfare. 

Scope of the Survey. 

The scope of the survey included the collection of a certain 
amount of information relative to present recreational conditions, 
and the formulation of a plan to develop facilities for recreation 
in Cincinnati so as to adequately meet the needs of all the people. 

Material in the Report. 

The report is divided into four sections. The first section sets 
forth the data collected concerning recreational activities; the 
second describes the existing facilities and extent of the various 
forms of recreation ; the third discusses the present S3"stem of gov- 
ernmental administration of recreational matters and suggests a 
new and improved method ; and the fourth outlines a comprehensive 
recreation program for Cincinnati, and points out immediate recrea- 
tional needs. 

Acknowledgment of Help. 

During the field work and in the preparation of the report in- 
valuable suggestions as to method and form were secured from 
a study of the published "Recreation Survey" of Kansas City. 
AcknoAvledgment of thanks is also due the Superintendent of Schools, 
the Board of Park Commissioners, and to the heads and subordi- 
nates of the various departments of the municipal government for 
their courteous assistance in the gathering of the necessary infor- 
mation, and to Mr. Maurice Hexter for the generous contribution of 
his services in investigating the public dance halls. 



RECREATION SURVEY OF CINCINNATI. 



GENERAL SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS. 

For the benefit of the casual reader the general information 
and recommendations contained in the report are here briefly sum- 
marized. 

Activities. 

V^ From a stud}^ of l,l'i''8 papers v^a'itten by school children living 
in all parts of the city on what they did in their spare time, it was 
ascertained that 23.3% of the spare time of boys and 24.2% of that 
[ of girls is taken up with some form of work. Only 14% of the 

\/ boys' and 26.2% of the girls' recreational life is filled by home 
, amusements. 
^ N Outdoor games secure from the boy larger interest than any 

[J I other form of recreational activity. Boys think twice as much of 
, outdoor sports as girls do, while girls think twice as much of talk- 

ing to and calling on friends, and nearly three times as much of 
inactive recreational occupations. \/Boys, therefore, need better facili- 
ties for outdoor play, and girls for wholesome sociability. 

V Of 1,124 children observed out of doors, 41% were playing, 

while 45% were doing nothing. More boys than girls were doing 

I V nothing, art,d 50% of the children observed were between ten and 

' Vy fifteen years of age — a significant fact when the Juvenile Court 

reports that 47% of the total number of children brought before it 

are between ten and fifteen years of age. The playgrounds within 

. J^ a reasonable distance from where these children lived were well 

filled with children.^ As idleness has no recreational value, it ought 

I 'y,\- to be checked by placing play leaders in charge of the certain streets 

■ ^^ in the congested districts. 

Various Forms of Recreation. 

There are four kinds of recreation ; namely, home recreation, 
private recreation, commercial recreation, and public recreation. 

1. For the majority of people there is practically no opportunity 
for home recreation. A study of the density of population by 
wards shows that one-third of the twenty-six -wards have a 
density of population from six to thirteen times as great as the 
density of population of the whole city. The fifteenth ward has 
the greatest congestion, with 129.9 persons per acre; the neigh- 
boring seventh ward comes next with 110.9 persons per acre. 
The average population per acre is 8.8. A house-to-house study 
in three "Soundings" in different parts of the city showed that 
the average number of rooms to a family are 2.3, and ^ the 
average number of persons to a room are 1.9. No "living 
rooms were found, except in a very few instances. No facilities 
for outdoor home play in the three "Soundings'" were found. An 



RMCKKATION SUKXEY OF CINCINNATI. O 

engineer's survey of the neighborhood showed that there was 
scarcely any space for private outdoor play, even including" in 
the count lawns and ungraded spaces which might be converted 
into play space, and that from 30% to 70% of the land in the 
neighboriiood is occupied b}^ streets and alleys. Answers from 
twenty school principals relative to their pupils' opportunity for 
home recreation show that in the majority of homes the facilities 
for recreation are few. As a result of the lack of opportunity 
for home recreation, the child is forced into the unsupervised 
street to play, and the youth and the adult become dependent 
upon commercial recreation and other outside sources for their 
diversion. Healthy family life is impaired, and the individual is 
placed beyond the moral control of the family. 

Private recreation is of two kinds, that supplied by co-operative 
clubs and that provided throug-h philanthropic effort. A record 
was obtained of 214 "Pleasure," "Social," "Outing" and "Fish- 
ing-" clubs. Fifteen of them report a total membership of 580 
men between twenty-one and forty years of age. Some of these 
clubs are organizations for the promotion of public dances for 
the sake of profit, and most of the public dances at the worst 
dance halls in Cincinnati are givei> as such club afifaiis. Many 
of these clubs meet in connection with saloons; a few have their 
own club rooms. 

. Four thousand eight hundred and twenty-five boys and men 
are reported as belonging to five of the largest athletic organiza- 
tions in the city. Considerable athletic activity is carried on 
among the public school children. 

Over 1,850 boys and men played baseball in regularly organ- 
ized teams every Saturday and Sunday throughout the summer. 
In addition, 360 public school boys played 100 games during the 
season, and the Catholic Churches had a baseball league with 
eight teams. Grounds on which' to pla}^ are hard to secure, and 
public athletic fields are altogether inadequate. 

According to the school census of 1913 there are 36,054 un- 
married youths between 14 and 21 years of age in Cincinnati. 
The number of young people between 12 and 21 years of age 
reached by the recreational work of the churches and philan- 
thropic agencies as reported by them is 9,095. These figures are 
incomplete, of course, as much of this recreation is of an occa- 
sional nature. The attendance of girls between 14 and 18 years 
of age at these recreational activities falls ofif decidedly, probably 
because we have not yet learned the needs of the adolescent girl. 
On Saturdays and Sundays, when the most people seek diver- 
sion, practically no opportunity for recreation is ofifered by these 
private agencies. 

Commercial recreation provides for fully two-thirds of the play 
life of the community. One hundred thousand two hundred and 
twenty-nine (100,229) people attend the moving pictures daily. 
The quality of recreation they afiford is on the whole very good, 
but the posters advertising the productions are lurid and sensa- 



6 RECREATION SURVEY OF CINCINNATI. 

tional and ought to be censored as well as the films. Eleven 
theaters have a seating capacity of 17,739. Two of the burlesque 
theaters and one of the vaudeville houses give performances of 
extreme vulgarity. Four-fifths of the patrons of these places are 
men, 25% of whom are between 18 and 25 years of age. For the 
protection of the public these productions ought to be censored 
and the city ordinance amended so as to make unlawful sexually 
suggestive acts and speeches in any performance or exhibition. 

There are 781 public pool rooms with 1,275 tables, three shoot- 
ing galleries, and 21 bowling alleys. The quality of recreation 
these places offer is good only as a result of constant supervision. 

Twenty-seven public dance halls and dancing academies pro- 
vide recreation for about 6,000 people on Saturday and Sunday 
evenings. The quality of recreation provided by four-fifths of 
the places is of the lowest order. There are two skating rinks 
in the city with a total capacity of 1,280 couples. One rink is 
patronized Avholh^ by colored people. Amusement parks are vis- 
ited by about 950,000 people during the summer. The quality "of 
recreation they offer i^ poor, as the management is usually in- 
different to the character and general conduct of the patrons. 
Persons who operate amilsement parks ought to be required to 
secure a license so as to come under public control. The bathing- 
beaches on the Kentucky fehore accommodate about 240,000 
people during the season. Better supervision would increase 
their recreational value. Commercial recreation, if supervised, 
provides splendid facility for amusement; unsupervised, it is a 
menace to the wholesome life of the community and is easily 
. turned into an instrument for the furthering of vice. Cincinnati 
needs new and better methods for supervising its commercial 
recreation. 

4. Cincinnati has 68 public school buildings, only twelve of which 
have been used to their fullest capacity. Only occasional use 
. heretofore has been made of the school buildings for recreational 
purposes and only two schools have had anything approaching 
social center activity. A Social Center Director has just been 
appointed to work under the direction of the Superintendent of 
Sqhools. Nine of the public library buildings have auditoriums 
which are used b}^ the public for recreational purposes. Not 
counting small plots of land laid out solel}^ to beautif}^ the city, 
the city has 30 public parks and parkwa^^s with a total' area of 
1.879.6 acres. A great deal of this land is at present unimproved. 
Public recreation to be beneficial to the community must be ade- 
quately supervised. The public parks were insufficiently policed. 
This past summer thirteen playgrounds were maintained by the 
Park Board with a total of 14.9 acres, five tennis courts, two golf 
links and nine athletic fields, with a total area of 87.9 acres. In 
the section of the city in which 50,003 children live (reckoning 
on the basis that 300 children are the maximum number who 
can play on a acre) public play space is provided for only 3,360' 



RIlCRI^ATION survey of CINCINNATI. i 

of them. Althou.^h in the adjoining Seventh, l\-nth, and Fifteenth 
wards 11% of the total child population of the city between 6 
and 17 years of age live in Vio% of the total area of the city, the 
public play space provided totals only 3.1 ■ acres. The play- 
grounds are kept open only four months during the year. The 
western section of the city is not properly provided with athletic 
fields. Five small school playgrounds were kept open during 
the summer months. Public play space is altogether inadequate 
at the present time. 

5. Two large colored settlements are located on Walnut Hills and 
the western part of the downtown residential section, respec- 
tively. Recreation for the colored youth on the hill is partly 
provided for by the social center activities of the Douglass School. 
The young people who live downtown, however, have absolutely, 
no opportunity for wholesome recreation. Except the Y.M.C.A., 
no social agency has yet concerned itself with this grave situa- 
tion, although 15% of the delinquent boys and 29% of the delin- 
quent girls are colored, when onlv 5.4% of our entire population 
is colored. A social center in the center of the colored settle- 
ment (about Eighth and Mound streets) is urgently needed. 

Administration. 

At present the administration of recreation is divided between 
four departments of the government, sometimes in no way con- 
nected with each other. The School Board establishes and main- 
tains school playgrounds and social centers ; the Park Board estab- 
lishes and maintains parks and playgrounds; the Mayor has regu- 
latorv powers over certain forms of commercial recreation ; and the 
police have general supervisory powers. The chief defects of this 

system are : 

• 
1: Lack of unitv. Although both the School and Park Boards 

establish and maintain public facilities for recreation, their 

efiforts are not correlated. 

2. No specific department of the government is responsible for the 
development of facilities for public recreation. The Park Board 
is primarily interested in the furthering of a park and boulevard 
system. 

3. Eack of adequate supervision of commercial recreation. Although 
the Mayor has supervisory powers, no machinery is provided for 
adequate inspection and control. 

4. Opportunity for friction. Under the present division of respon- 
sibility, there is constant opportunity for friction between de- 
partments of the government. To do away with these defects, 
it is suggested that all the administrative powers be centered 
in one board, known as the Park and Recreation Board, to be 
composed of five -members — four to be appointed by the Mayor, 
(one to be a member also of the Board of Education) and the 
Superintendent of Public Schools. 



RECREATION SURVEY OF CINCINNATI. 

The duties of the Board should be : 

1. The acquisition and management of property for use as public 
parks and playgrounds. 

2. The establishment, management and supervision of all other 
facilities for public recreation, exclusive of public school 
buildings used as social centers. 

3. The supervision of commercial recreation, which shall include 
the power at present vested in the Mayor of granting and 
revoking licenses which are required by law. They should 
have the power to appoint salaried executive officers and such 
other assistants as may prove necessary to efficiently carry 
out the three functions of the Board. As school property is 
not under the control of the municipal government, a Recrea- 
tion Board, to be able to prosecute successfully an adequate 
recreation program, must be composed in a way to insure the 
closest co-operation of the Board of Education. 

General Recreation Program for the Future, 

The School Board should hereafter not erect public school 
buildings without making ample provisions for school playgrounds. 

School playgrounds should be kept open in each neighborhood 
for the use of children from 2 to 13 years of age. 

The Recreation Board should establish playfields within a rea- 
sonable distance of each other, especially adapted to the needs of 
young people between the ages of 13 and 17 years, and large athletic 
fields in dififerent sections of the city for adults. 

The School and Recreation Boards should jointly employ a 
Playground Supervisor, so as to unify methods of supervision. 

The system of public parks and parkways as a part of a broad 
recreation system should be developed to keep pace with the gro'Wth 
of the city, but not at the expense of adequate facilities for active 
outdoor play. 

After school playrooms should be established by the School 
Board and maintained by the Recreation Board, if necessary to con- 
tinue the work of the playgrounds during the winter months. 

A director of Girls' Clubs and a director of Boys' Clubs should- 
be appointed to study the needs of the adolescent youth and stimu- 
late the establishment of social clubs in every section of the city. 
These clubs could meet either at social centers or public libraries. 

Social rooms equipped with facilities for games of various sorts 
should be open nightly in the schoolhouses in congested districts 
for the convenience of young girls and young men. 

Social center activities conducted by the School Boards should 
be along the broadest lines and should include the giving of neigh- 
borhood dances at regular intervals. 

Where the School Board is unable to maintain and conduct a 
social center in a neighborhood lacking sufficient facilities for recrea- 



RFX'REATION SURVEY OF CINCINNATI. 9 

tion, the Recreation Board should establish and maintain recreation 
centers, as it is done in Chicago, Seattle and other cities. 

All forms of commercial recreation should be under constant 
supervision. 

This supervision should in no way check the free development 
of commercial recreation, but should increase its recreational value. 

Immediate Recreational Needs. 

A playground should be established in the northern section of 
the Seventh Ward or the southern section of the Tenth Ward. 

An athletic field should be located east of Millcreek to meet the 
needs of the western section of the city. 

Until an adequate number of playgrounds are provided certain 
streets, least used by traffic, should be shut off in the congested 
sections of the city to be used, under supervision, for play purposes. 

The present playgrounds in the congested sections of the city 
should be open twelve months in the year. Seventy-one cities in 
the United States keep 299 centers open throughout the year. 

The public parks should be better supervised. 

A social center for colored people should be established as near 
Eighth and Mound streets as possible. 

A social center should be opened in either the Sixth District 
or Webster schools. Neither of these buildings are new and espe- 
cially equipped for social center purposes, but the congestion of 
population is so great in that locality that the need is urgent. No 
private agencies provide means for recreation in that neighborhood. 

A social center should be opened at the Washburn School, where 
the density of population is 129.3 persons per acre; at the Sands 
School, wiiere the density of population is 89.3 persons per acre; 
at the Chase School in Cumminsville, where the density of popula- 
tion is 83.4 persons per acre. The Guilford School, although the 
newest building and best equipped for social center activities, is 
located in a district where the density of population is only 30.3 
persons per acre. There are, moreover, two social agencies in its 
immediate vicinity affording good opportunities for recreation. 

Steps should be taken to secure the censorship of theatrical 
posters. 

Section 879 of the Codification of Ordinances should be amended 
so as to make it unlawful to permit suggestive acts and speeches 
in any performance or exhibition. 

Persons who wish to conduct amusement parks ought to be 
required to secure a license. 

An ordinance empowering the city to forbid steam vessels 
which are not sufficiently supervised or lighted to make use of the 
public docks should be passed to provide for control of recreational 
conditions on excursion boats. 

A new ordinance for the control of public dance halls should be 
passed, providing special machinery for the inspection of public 
dances by the municipal authorities. 



10 RECREATION SURVEY OF CINCINNATI. 



SECTION A. RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES. 
I. ACTIVITIES OF SCHOOL CHILDREN. 

Papers of School Children. 

In order to ascertain the recreational activities of children, with 
the co-operation of the Superintendent of Schools, the children of 
the Sixth, Seventh and Eighth grades of forty-five of the district 
schools and the First and Second grades of two of the high schools 
of the city were asked to write for fifteen or twenty minutes on 
what they did with their spare' time. A careful study was then 
made of 1,178 of these papers — 589 from boys and 589 from girls. 
The papers were selected at random from the total number, but an 
attempt was made to keep the proportion of the papers written by 
boys and girls the same from each school. The papers were all 
written during the first week in October. 

Table I summarizes the number of children mentioning each 
form of amusement as well as the number of times each form of 
amusement Avas mentioned. This "mention" column is thus a truer 
index to the importance of each kind of pastime in the recreational 
life of the child. For instance, a child who writes of playing an out- 
door game in both the afternoon and evening would count only as 
one in the number of children mentioning" outdoor games and sports, 
but this form of recreation would figure as two in the "mention" 
column. 

Table II gives the results of the papers in percentages. 

TABLE L 
Activities of School Children. 

Activities Boys Mention 

Outdoor games and sports 437 718 

Walking, shopping, going downtown 173 209 

Watcliing, games, loaiing outdoors 174 184 

Home games, home amusements, clubs..... 68 74 

Reading 181 204 

Fancy work, music, drawing, etc 45 - 58 

Calling on friends, talking, loafing indoors. . . 89 113 

Theaters, picture shows 236 267 

Gymnasiums and outside clubs 29 36 

Parties, dancing school 3 3 

Home work, chores, errands, etc 298 409 

Outside work, office, store, carrying papers, 

lamplighting : 121 155 13 16 



Girls 


Mention 


291 


393 


287 


335 


88 


91 


104 


122 


249 


294 


222 


288 


210 


233 


197 


231 


34 


44 


12 


13 


400 


632 



20.7 


14.5 


8.6 


12.5 


7.5 


3.4 


3.1 


4.5 


8.5 


10.9 


3.4 


10. S 


4.5 


8.7 


11. 


8.6 


1.2 


1.6 


.2 


.3 


16.9 


23.6 



RF.CRKATKIN SURX'KV OF fTXCT X XATI. 11 

TABLE IT. 

Activities of School Children. 

Percentage of 
Activities Xumber of Papers Percentage of Mentions 

Boys Girls Boys Girls 

Outdoor games and sports 72.5 49.4 

Walking, shopping, going downtown 29.4 48.8 

Watching games, hiafing outdoors 29.5 14.9 

Home games, home amusements, chibs.. 11.5 17.6 

Reading 30.7 42.3 

Fancy work, music, drawing, etc 7.6 37.6 

Calling on friends, talking, loaling indoors IG.S 35.6 

Theaters, picture shows 40. 33.4 

Gymnasium and outdoor cluh.s 5. 5.7 

Parties, dancing school ■ 0.5 2. 

Home work, chores, errands, etc 50.6 67.9 

Outside work, office, store, carrying 

papers, lamplighting 30.7 2.2 6.4 .6 

100.0 100.0 

As care was taken to select papers written by children living 
in all parts of the city, the followino- facts are true regarding- the 
average Cincinnati child. 

Work After School Hours. 

23.3 per cent of a boy's and 2-4.2 per cent of a girl's time out 
of school hours is occupied with some form of work. This work 
for both boys and giiMs is usually in the nature of housework, run- 
ning errands, going to market or the grocery, assisting with the 
dinner, or scrubbing floors and steps. Some write of helping in the 
store or shop, watching the yoiinger children, and the boys speak 
of selling papers, shining shoes and driving on delivery wagons. 
One little fellow complains : "Had to saw wood nearly every ten 
minutes (seemed to me), and had to go to the store nearly every 
time I got my wheel out to ride." A girl writes of having nothing 
to tell of what she did for fun outside of school last week, as she 
had no time to play. 

Home Recreation. 

Even if it is taken for granted that reading, fancy work, music 
and drawing are home recreation, only 14 per cent of the recrea- 
tional life of the boy and 26.2 per cent of that of the girl is filled by 
home amusements. Of the games played indoors, checkers, authors, 
and similar card games are mentioned. One girl writes of "playing 
house in the attic." 

Reading. 

Both boys and girls are fond of reading. A few notes were 
made while classifying the papers of books which were mentioned. 
Fairy tales are popular with both boys and girls. One boy writes : 
"I go to the Public Library and get me a book about war or fairy 
tales." Bovs also are fond of historv. and both bovs and o-irls like 



12 RECREATION SURVEY OF CINCINNATI. 

tales of adventure. One boy writes : "When I got home I read the 
'Literary Digest' and the 'Appeal to Reason,' " while yet another 
tells, "When I came home I sat down and read about Harry Thaw." 
A girl writes : "I read 'Vanity Fair' and liked it very much. Later 
T saw it in the moving pictures." 

Moving Pictures. 

Moving pictures provide 11 per cent of the recreation of boys 
and 8.8 per cent of that of girls. 

Attendance at moving picture theaters is mentioned much more 
frequently by the children living in the congested districts. A girl 
writes, "I go to the picture show about three times a week," and a 
boy, "After I eat my supper, I ask my father for a dime to go to 
the show." Another says, "On Saturday and Sunday evenings I 
generally go to the show." 

Some of the children went into detail as to the story shown in 
the picture films. A boy writes: "I saw the 'Glove and the Lion,' 
which pleased me very much, because last year in the Sixth Grade 
it was in our readers." 

Other films are not as healthfully amusing. A boy tells: "They 
had about the 'Jail Bird.' There was a man who had a wife and a 
little girl. When the man went to his office, his wife telephoned 
another man whom she loved. But a friend of the man's wife saw 
them, and went and told it to him what she had done. He didn't 
want to believe it. Then the man took a revolver and shot that 
man dead whom his wife loved. He was sentenced for ten years. 
When they were working", Prisoner 13 told him to escape, and he did 
so. When he was over, the other one wanted to get over the wall, too ; 
but the stick broke and he was captured. He had many adventures 
until he was set free. In the evening I went to another show." 
Another paper tells: "In the evening, I make my lessons and then 
go to the nickel theater and see a fine show. . . . The picture was 
about John Bunny as a woman. The other one wa's about a robber 
'entering a house and stealing silverware and gold and other jewels 
while the people were sleeping. In the morning when they looked 
for their jewels and silverware they were gone. They notified the 
police, and the}^ came and looked for the thief, but could not find 
any one." 

Outdoor Games. 

Outdoor games secure from the boy greater interest than any 
•other form of recreational activity. Boys think twice as much of 
outdoor sports as girls do, while the girls in turn better enjoy quiet 
•sociability, and think twice as much as boys of talking to and call- 
ing on friends, and nearly three times as much of inactive recrea- 
tional occupations. 

In tabulating the papers, outdoor games and sports were given 
the broadest possible interpretation. Every form of outdoor fun 
was classified under this head. Frequent mention is made, however, 



RECREATION SURVEY OF CINCINNATI. 13 

by both boys and girls, of group games. Hop-skotch. blind man's 
bluff, hat thief, puss-in-the-corner, steps, and go-sheepy-go, seem 
popular. Quite a large number of children, including tho'se' living 
in the downtown districts, speak of walking to Eden Park and 
Burnet Woods and other woody places to gather buckeyes. 

An interest in games imitating activities of primitive life is 
occasionally expressed. A boy writes of "building a furnace on the 
hill." Another says, "In the afternoon I played 'Indians and Cow- 
boys' in the woods." And yet another, "I went down to the bottoms 
and helped the boys put a stove in our tree-house," while a girl 
tells of helping "build a fort for the younger bovs." 

Lack of Outdoor Play Space. 

Mention is sometimes made of the lack of outdoor play space. 
One boy. who does not even live in a congested neighborhood, 
writes : "It seems just about the time we begin (playing ball in a 
side street), the policeman comes and chases us away. If we go 
in the neighboring lot or field the owners are after us. If we play 
football, the people come out, and we have to get away or they 
send for a policeman. After school Thursdav we were playing 
'Slim Jim' in a lot, and the policeman came and took our names in 
his book, and said, 'If we don't stay out of the lot, he would take 
us down to the Juvenile Court.' Where would vou advise us to 
play?" 

Conclusion. 

Roys need to be provided with better opportunities for outdoor 
play, and girls with facilities for wholesome sociability. 



14 



RECREATION SURVEY OF CINCINNATI. 



11. OBSERVATIONS OF CHILDREN OUT OF DOORS. 

A further study was made of children's recreational activity by 
making- observations of what they were doing out of doors. Three 
sections of the city were selected for intensive study, and these 
"Soundings"* were visited during the afternoon and evening and the 
number, age, sex and occupation of the children noted. Table III 
gives the results of this study. 



Sounding 
III. 
No. Per Ct. 


20 


8 


100 


40 


133 


52 



253^ 



31 


13 


79 


29 


125^ 


50 


18 


8 









No playground 



TABLE III. 
Observation of Children Out of Doors. 

Sounding Sounding 

What the Children Were Doing I. II. 

No. Per Ct. No. Per Ct.- 

Working ! 49 13 78 16 

Playing 173 46 191 38 

Doing nothing 149 41 231 46 

Total 371 500 

Ages of Children — 

Under 6 26 7 50 10 

6 to 10 132 35 165 33 

10 to 15 176 49 247 .50 

15 to 18 37 9 38 7 

Over 18 

Number of children in near- 
est playground 500 900 

(2 playgrounds) 
Area of playground. ....... . 1.77 acres 2.21 acres 

Children Who Are Doing Nothing. 

Of the 1,124 children and young people observed out of doors 
only 41 per cent were playing, while 45 per cent were doing noth- 
ing. The habitual difficulty of engaging in active play in congested 
districts may be a partial cause for this waste of opportunity for 
profitable relaxation and pleasure. Another reason may be lack of 
imagination in conceiving recreational activities or lack of initiative 
in prosecuting them. In all events, idleness has" no recreational 
value, and the child who is doing nothing because he does not know 
what to do easily falls into mischievous habits. Play leadership 
would probably materially check this enervating idleness and be a 
strong preventive of juvenile delinquency. More boys than girls 
were doing nothing, and 50 per cent of the children observed were 
between ten and fifteen 3^ears of age. It is significant with regard 
to this fact that 47 per cent of the total number of children brought 
before the Juvenile Court* are between ten and fifteen years of age. , 

* Sounding I (12 blocks) bounded by Cutter, Freeman, Richmond and Barr streets. 
Sounding II (9 blocks) bounded by Liberty, Findlay, Central and Race streets. Sounding III . 
(8 blocks) bounded by Celectial, Ida, Monastery, Lock and Third streets. 

** Many of the children in Sounding Til play along the railroad tracks just to the west 
of it, or go down to the river, and this accounts for the smaller number of children observed 
in that locality. 

* Juvenile Court Report for 1912. 



t-^ 



RECREATION SURVEY OF CIxNCINNATI. 15 

Lack of Playgrounds. 

Play leadership, such as was suggested above, is found in the 
playgrounds. No playgrounds, however, were located in the three 
Soundings : Sinton Park adjoined Sounding I on the east, and 
Planna and McKinley playgrounds were about equally distant from 
Sounding II, while no playgrounds were near enough to Sounding 
III to be counted as neighboring on it. These playgrounds, how- 
ever, were found to be well filled with children from their immediate 
neighborhoods, and could not possibly accommodate the number 
of children whom observation showed needed direction in play. To 
adequately reach such children play leaders would have to be .placed 
in charge of the streets themselves, as has been done in New York, 
Chicago, Baltimore and other cities. 

III. RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES OF ADULTS. 

It has been impossible to ascertain the recreational activities 
of adults in the same way as those of children were secured. A 
study of the following chapters, however, describing the extent and 
facilities of the various forms of recreation, will give some idea of 
the importance of the different kinds of pleasure in the life of every 
individual of the communitv. 



SECTION B. THE VARIOUS FORMS OF RECREATION. 

There are four dift'erent kinds of recreation ; namely, home 
recreation, or the pastimes enjoyed in or under the supervision of 
the home ; private recreation, or the diversions provided through 
co-operative or philanthropic effort ; commercial recreation, or the 
amusements furnished on a commercial basis; and public recreation, 
or the recreation supplied by the government for the benefit of all 
% members of the cc:>mmunity. This section of the report discusses 
the existing faciHties and value of each of these four forms of 
recreation. 

I. HOME RECREATION. 

Home recreation is, of course, the l)est kind of recreation for 
both the adult and the child. It lends itself to family solidarity, to 
the safeguarding of the pleasures of the younger members of the 
family by the kindly supervision of their natural guardians. 

For home recreation to be possible, however, there must be in 
the home a certain chance for privacy for each individual in the 
family group and a certain amount of space which will permit for 
active or even passive play. 

Density of Population by Wards. 

An approximate indication, therefore, of the facilities for home 
recreation is secured by a study of the density of population by 
wards. Table IV gives this information. It will be noticed that 
one-third of the twenty-six wards have a density of population from 



16 RECREATION SURVEY OF CINCINNATI. 

six to thirteen times as great as the density of population of the 
whole city. The neighboring Fifteenth and the Seventh wards are 
the most congested in the city. The density of the Seventh Ward 
is even greater than is indicated, because a portion of its small area 
is taken up by Music Hall, Washington Park and the Canal. The 
Sixteenth and Tenth wards come next for density ; the congestion 
in the latter is largely in the southern portion adjoining the Seventh 
Ward. 

TABLE IV. 

Density of Population. 

Population Per 
Acre above or 
Ward Area in Acres Population* Population below City aver- 

Per Acre age of 8.S per- 
sons per Acre. 

1 '. 6,900 17,728 2.5 6.3— 

2 3,580 21,345 5.9 " 2.9— 

3 1,380 20,404 14.7 5.9+ 

4 720 15,764 21.9 13.1+ 

5 220 14,216 64.5 56.2+ 

6 - 260 15,396 59.1 50.3+ 

7 115 12,760 110.9 102.1+ 

8 460 13,980 30.3 32.5+ 

9 610 15,052 24.6 15.8+ 

10 165 15,001 90.9 82.1+ 

11 500 17,579 35.1 26.3+ 

12 310 16,807 54.2 45.4+ 

13 3,560 12,936 3.6 5.2— 

14 170 15,287 89.3 80.5+ 

15 110 14,290 129.9 121.1+ 

16 160 16,264 101.5 92.7+ 

17 520 13,646 26.2 17.4+ 

18 340 14,965 62.3 53.5+ 

19 1,660 17,781 10.4 1.6+ 

20 3,250 19,288 .5.9 2.9— 

21 175 14,600 83.4 74.6+ 

22 870 11,728 13.4 4.6+ 

23 1,440 15,284 10.9 2.1+ 

24 4,500 15,196 3. 5.8— 

25 6,510 12,256 1.9 7.1— 

26 ■.. 6,520 8,800 1.3 7.5 — 



Total 44,905 398,353 

Housing Study with Reference to the Possibility for Home Recrea- 
tion. 

To ascertain further the possibility for home recreation, a house- 
to-house study was' made in a part of each of the Soundings already 
described. 

In Sounding I the investigation covered four blocks (bounded 
by Linn, Eighth, Freeman and Barr streets) ; in Sounding II, seven 
blocks (bounded by Findlay, Logan, Green, Pleasant, Liberty and 
Central Avenue) ; in Sounding III, six blocks (bounded by Lock, 
East Third, Oregon, and East Fifth street). The result of this in- 
vestigation has been summarized in Table V. 



* Figures supplied by the Board of Elections, October, 1912 



Sounding 


Soundini 


II. 


III. 


Ki 


12 


96 


150 


826 


1681 


171 


374 


5 


3 


3 


o 


5 


4.5 


1.7 


2.3 


2 


2 



RECREATION SURVEY OF CINCINNATI. 17 

TABLE V. 
Study of Home Conditions. 

Sounding 
I. 

Number of homes 3 

Number of tenements 61 

Numl)er of individuals 614 

Number of families .• 128 

Average number of families to a tenement 3 

Average number of rooms to a family 3 

Average number of people to a family 5 

Average number of people to a room 1.7 

Average number of children under 15 to a family. . . 2 

It can be readily seen from these figures that home recreation 
is practically impossible. No such thing as a living room was found 
by the investigator except in the few "homes" noted. Even in those 
rooms which, by better furnishing or arrangement seemed to be 
pressed into service as a center for the social activities of the family, 
none were found without the folding bed or couch, which showed 
for what purpose they were really used. No child could play any- 
thing but the quietest of games at home under such circumstances, 
and for the young girl and the youth to receive their friends with the 
rest of the famil}^ crowded about, and younger children underfoot, 
is impossible. 

These tenement homes, moreover, are often dreary and un- 
attractive. Few of them -provide those mechanical means for enter- 
tainment which are such important accessories to the successful 
social intercourse of youth. In Sounding I only five per cent of the 
homes had pianos and two per cent had talking machines or musical 
instruments. In Sounding II only one per cent of the homes were 
provided with pianos and one per cent with talking machines or 
musical instruments, and in Sounding III two per cent had pianos 
and five per cent had musical instruments or talking machines. 

Outdoor Home Recreation. 

Plav in private yards, being under direct supervision, is another 
form of home recreation. The extent of this outdoor home recrea- 
tion is, of course, circumscribed by the adequacy of physical facili- 
ties. To determine the amount of private outdoor play space, an 
engineer was employed to survey the three Soundings. Table Vl. 
•srives the restilts of his study. 



18 RECREATION SURVEY OF CINCINNATI. 

TABLE VI. 
Outdoor Play Space, 

Sounding Sounding Sounding 

I. II. III. 

Acres Per Ct. Acres Per Ct. Acres Per Ct. 

General Distribution of Land. 

Street and alleys. .-. 17.8 52 15.5 79 -9.4 30 

Other land 33.3 48 19.6 21 30.6 70 



Total 51.1 100 35.1 100 40. 100 

Distribution o£ Land Not in Streets and Alleys. 

Usuable for play 59 None None 

Usable for play but grading 

needed 24 None 1. 

Not usable for play None None 2.2* 

Lawns, play not allowed. .. . 1.5 None No laws of 

any size 

Storage yards .35 .5 .2 

Occupied by houses and inter- 
spaces less than 25x25 ft. . . 20.48 19.1 ' About 27.2 

It will be seen from this table that opportunities for outdoor 
home play practically do not exist in three neighborhoods selected 
so as to represent the conditions under which the majority of the 
people of Cincinnati live. This condition increases the significance 
of the fact, previously noted, of the large number of children and 
young people who loaf about the streets with nothing to do. Suf- 
ficient public play space and the leadership and supervision already 
suggested would remedy this serious state of afiiairs. How ade- 
quately Cincinnati is provided with public playgrounds will be dis- 
cussed under the chapter on Public Recreation. 

Letters to School Principals. 

To estimate the home conditions in all parts of the city along 
the lines indicated by the intensive studies just described, a letter 
was sent to the principals of forty-five public schools of the city, 
requesting them to answer the following questions : 

1. In your opinion what are the general home conditions of the 
majority of your pupils? 

2. What facilities and opportunities have your pupils for recreation 
in their own homes? 

3. When there is opportunity and facility for recreation at hoine, 
do many parents pay proper attention to recreation for the chil- 
dren ? 

4. How many of the children have yards- in which they can play? 
Approximately, what per cent? 

5. Any other information which you can give us along the same 
lines will be of value to us. 

The twenty replies received are tabulated in Table VII. 

* Steep hillside. 



RECREATION SURVEY OF CINCINNATI. 



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RECREATION SURVEY OF CINCINNATI. 21 

Conclusion. ' 

The facilities ft)r home recreation are poor for the majority of 
the people. This condition forces the child into the unsupervised 
street to play, and makes the youth and adult dependent on com- 
mercial recreation and other outside sources for their diversion. 
Healthy family life centers in similarity of interests, and is impaired 
when recreation becomes an individual and not a social Goncern to 
members of the family group. In other M^ords, the most serious 
result of the lack of opportunity for recreation at home is that it 
places the individual lie^'ond the family's moral control. 

II. PRIVATE RECREATION. 

Social Clubs. 

A definite part of the social life of the community is furnished 
by co-operative neig-hborhood clubs. They are most frequently 
organizations of young men who join together for the purpose of 
sociability and the giving- of entertainments. Some of these clubs, 
under the guise of seeking pleasure for their members, are organi- 
zations for the promotion of public dances for the sake of profit. 
Most of the dances at the worst dance halls in Cincinnati are given 
as such club afifairs, although the general public is admitted. 

The Directory of 1913 gives a list of 190 "Pleasure," "Social," 
"Outing" and "Fishing" clubs, while a further list from the Mayors 
office brings the number up to 214. If to these are added the choral 
and singing societies which are often organized along social lines, 
and the bowling clul)S, there are 356 co-operative organizations re- 
corded. Fraternal and similar organizations are excluded from this 
count, as well as the many mutual benefit associations, which very 
often give social affairs, and the many small clubs of which there is 
no record. 

A letter was sent out to 100 of these clubs asking for general 
information as to their membership and purpose. Onlv fifteen re- 
plies were received. These fifteen clubs report a total membership 
of 580 men. The minimum age limit in all but one instance was 
21 years, and the majority of their members are reported to be 
between 21 and 40 years of age. Only three of the clubs report the 
giving of dances since January 1, 1913 ; outings, socials, picnics, boat 
excursions, entertainments and parties were mentioned. From 
records at the Mayors office, it was found that 337 dances were 
given by social clubs and several church organizations from lanuary 
1, 1913,' to September 10, 1913. 

Several of the co-operative clubs have their own club rooms; 
a large number of them, however, meet in connection with cafes and 
saloons. The recreational value of these clubs is probably good 
except in those instances where the club is used as a cloak for the 
promoting of vicious pleasure. 



22 RECREATION SURVEY OF CINCINNATI. 

* , Athletic Organizations. 

Athletic organizations supply a splendid form of recreation, par- 
ticularly for young- men. Information as to the total number of 
athletic clubs in the city was not obtainable. The Department of 
Physical Training of the Y. M. C. A., the Men's Club of Christ 
Church, the Advent Memorial Club, the St. Paul Gymnasium and 
Athletic Club, and the Cincinnati Gymnasium and Athletic Club 
report a total membership of 4,825 boys and men. Some of these 
athletic organizations are part of the recreation work of philan- 
thropic agencies, which is described at the end of this chapter. 

Considerable athletic activity is carried on among public school 
children under the auspices of a Games Committee. Last February 
an indoor meet was held at Music Hall in which there were nearly 
500 entries. Four field meets were held in June, with a total of 601 
entries, excluding the children taking part in relay races. Every fall 
an Athletic Button Contest is held in all the schools, and each school 
does its own work on its own grounds. Last year 307 boys and 228 
girls qualified for the Athletic Buttons. Soccer football is also ex- 
tensively-playedj but great difficulty is experienced by the team in 
finding facilities to play the game, as grounds are hard to secure, 
and the park playgrounds do not provide for soccer or association 
football. 

Base Ball Teams. 

In the summer one of the most active forms of recreation among 
men and boys is baseball. Aside from professional baseball, which 
has a National League club here, there are a large number of ama- 
teur teams among men and boys. The largest booking agency in 
the city reports that over 50 teams were pla3ang baseball every 
Saturday and over 150 teams every Sunday ; that the National Amer- 
ican Amateur League has 16 teams and the Church League has three 
teams. In all it is estimated that about 1,850 men and boys play 
baseball in these regularly organized teams on Saturdays and Sun- 
days. In addition, there were thirty public school ball teams with 
twelve to thirteen boys to a team. These teams played 100 games 
during the season. The Catholic churches also had a baseball 
league composed of eight teams. 

Great difficulty was experienced by the teams in securing grounds 
on Saturday. Because of this fact most of the Sunday games of the 
National Amateur League and other leagues are played out of town, 
but on Saturday the men and boys work until noon and must con- 
sequently play in the city. Private grounds are often prohibitive in 
price, $10.00 for an afternoon, and public athletic fields are altogether 
inadequate. 

Philanthropic Agencies. 

Philanthropic agencies and churches, realizing of late the neces- 
sity for healthful recreation in a well-rounded life, have provided 
various forms of recreation as a part of their social or parish work. 
To ascertain the extent and character of the recreational facilities 
which these social organizations offer, and the number of young 



RECREATION SURVEY OF CINCINNATI. 23 

])eople they reach, the following- questions were sent to every philan- 
thropic ami social agency in Cincinnati, whose purpose might even 
remotely include a recreation program, and to all of the churches, 
which during the winter of 1912-1913 replied to a general inquiry 
sent out by the Y. M. C. A. concerning- their recreational activities. 

Questions Sent to Philanthropic Agencies and Churches. 

1. How many young- people between the following ages does your, 
recreational work reach ? 

Boys 12 to 14 14 to 16 16 to 18 18 to 21 

Girls 12 to 14' 14 to 16 16 to 18 18 to 21 

2. Are the majority of the girls and boys from 14 to 16 still attend- 
ing school, or are they working? What class of work? 

3. Do they come from your immediate neighborhood? If not, what 
parts of the city do they come from? 

4. What formsof recreation do you offer? Social clul)s? Dancing? 
Entertainments? 

5. How manv nights a w^eek do you suj^ply some form of recreation 
for those young people? 

6. Are you open on Saturday and Sunday evenings? If so, what 
entertainments do you have then ? 

7. At wdiat time do your activities close every night? Are you open 
all the year round? 

8. What special activities from your recreation program for the 



summer season 



9. What is the average attendance of your clubs, dances and enter- 
tainments? Is the individual boy or girl allowed to join more 
than one club and attend all the entertainments? Is the average 
attendance of each boy and girl more than one evening a week? 

The answers received are hard to tabulate, as some organiza- 
tions seem unable to state how manv young people make use of their 
recreational facilities and these facilities vary so in extent and char- 
acter. Moreover, the recreational work of many of the churches is 
confined to occasional entertainments and socials. 

Number of Young People Reached, 

The total number of unmarried youths in Cincinnati from 14 to 
21 years of age, according to the last school census, is as follows: 
11,159 from 14 to 16 years of age, and 24,895 from 17 to 21 years 
of age. 

The total number of young people reached by the recreational 
work of the philanthropic' organizations and churches, as reported 
by them, is shown in Table VIII. 

TABLE VIII. 

\„Q Boys Girls Total 

19 Jo 14 .536 1,056 1,592 

14 to 16;; :;;;;■; ^^-^ ^55 tso 

16 to 18 «S!^ '^02 1.691 

j8 to 21 2,486 2,537 5.023 

Total ■i--*^-''' '^•SSO •'-'^^•'J 



24 RECREATION SURVEY OF CINCINNATI. 

There is shown a decided falling- off in the attendance of girls 
between 14 and 18 years of age. This may be only partly accounted 
for by the girls' enrollment at night school. It is probably due in 
a large measure to the fact that social organizations have not yet 
learned the recreational needs of the adolescent girl. It was inter- 
esting to note while reading the replies the lack of purely recrea- 
tional provisions made for the girl and the emphasis laid upon them 
.for the boy. The girl is supposed to content herself largely with 
sewing, cooking and literary clubs, and occasional socials and dances 
of a mild variety, while regular social club rooms for the adolescent 
boy are open nightly, if possible, and equipped for all sorts of games. 
Again, all kinds of athletic activity is organized for him. This fact 
is particularly significant when it is remembered that the study of 
the papers of school children (12 to 16 years of age) showed that 
girls value sociability twice as much as bo3^s. 

As instances of this tendency to underemphasize the needs of 
the girls several can be cited. Four Catholic parishes conduct social 
clubs for boys from 14 to 17 years of age. There are no such clubs 
for the girls of the same age. Again, fifteen parishes have social 
club-rooms for boys 17 years of age open ever}^ night except 
Sunday, while they provide no such facilities for the girls. The 
young' men have pocket billiard leagues, basket ball leagues, and 
baseball teams, while the young women use the parish hall only for 
some specially arranged euchre or dance. In the same way a Protest- 
ant institutional church reports a social clubroom for young men, 
open every night except Sunday, and all the year found, while the 
girls are provided for only on the average of one night a week dur- 
ing the winter months. 

Sixteen organizations report the maintenance of gymnasiums 
and ten provisions for calisthenics. Aside from the 'Catholic par- 
ishes only three other organizations report pool and billiard rooms 
and one a bowling alley. Two settlements- have moving pictures 
and six organizations give dances, one regularl}^ every Saturday 
night. These dances, however, are usually for the young people 
eighteen years of age and over. Eighteen regularly organized social 
clubs for boys and four social clubs for girls are reported. A number 
of other boys' organizations exist, such as the Boy Scouts, with an 
enrollment of 400 members. Other forms of recreation offered are 
dramatic clubs and minstrel shows, lectures, choral classes, music, 
walking clubs, summer camps (five for boys and three for girls), 
river trips, picnics, swimming and tennis. 

On Saturday evening, when the most young people try to find 
recreation, very few places offer facilities for amusement, and on 
Sunday, the day when again the most people seek diversion, the 
social organizations make practically no provisions' for their enter- 
tainment. The Catholic parishes do, indeed, have social gatherings 
and walking trips, and five other places have social hours with music 
and refreshments. 

Of course, a lot of occasional recreation is provided by churches 
and social organizations of which there is no record. Opportunity 



RECREATION SURVEY OF CINCINNATI. 25 

for recreation, however, as supplied by those organizations working 
for social welfare, is pitiably small and cannot in any way compete 
with commercial recreation. The vast majority of adolescent boys 
and girls, at the period when they are most impressionable and most 
easily demoralized by vicious influences, must turn to commercial 
recreation to find those amusements which they crave as a means 
of self-expression. 

III. COMMERCIAL RECREATION. 

The largest and most important facilities for recreation in any 
city are those amusement places conducted for the purpose of profit. 
When the character of modern industry forced men to live together 
in cities, and crowded housing conditions prevented the participation 
of the famil}^ in recreation at home, it was commercial enterprise 
alone which realized the value of the people's unsatisfied need for 
relaxation and pleasure. Today commercial recreation provides for 
fully two-thirds of the play life of the community. 

Up to very recently no one considered whether this arrangement 
was good or bad ; commercial recreation was looked upon as any 
other form of private business undertaking in which the public had 
no concern. Irately, however, a new appreciation of the importance 
of healthy recreation in virile individual or community life has devel- 
oped the conviction that commercial recreation to fill adequately a 
social want must submit to social control. 

During the survey, therefore, special attention was given to 
commercial amusement places in Cincinnati. Their utility in grati- 
fying man's deep-rooted play instinct has been judged solely on the 
basis of whether or not they provided opportunity for sound and 
wholesome pleasure. Investigators were told to disabuse their 
minds of the idea that good recreation must necessarily have an 
educational flavor. 

All recreation, of course, whether good or bad, has a definite 
educational value. It either rounds out or warps character, develops 
or demoralizes the will, stimulates or enervates, for complete living, 
but too long has play just for play's sake been looked at askance, 
and the recreation provided by those interested in human welfare 
been tainted with the spirit pervading "uplift" work. In the follow- 
ing paragraphs, therefore, which describe the various forms of com- 
mercial amusement in our city, their social worth has been estimated 
altogether from the standpoint of their recreational efficiency. 

Moving Picture Shows. 

Foremost in popularity among the forms of commercial recrea- 
tion is the moving picture show. In September, 1913, Cincinnati 
had eighty-one moving picture houses (three of which were still, in 
the process of construction) and six airdomes. The location and 
seating capacity of the regular moving picture houses is shown in 
the following table : 



26 RECREATION SURVEY OF CINCINNATI. 

Location Number Capacity 

Downtown business district 13 5,797 

Downtown residential district 33 14,136 

Suburban residential district 35 28,859 



Total ' 81 48,7.92 

The structure of the moving picture houses has improved greatly 
in the last two years. Through the activities of the City Building- 
Inspection Department all have been made safe in case of fire. The 
ventilation also has been materially improved, but more must be 
done in that line. By the time the second audience comes in the 
air is frequently vitiated, and as the performance is continuous there 
is no opportunity to let in fresh air. Some of the better theaters 
have moving picture apparatus which will work satisfactorily iri a 
room not altogether darkened, but the greater number of places are 
still insufficiently lighted for proper supervision of the patrons. 

Theaters in the residential districts, except on Saturdays and 
Sundays, usually remain closed during the day, and run from three 
to four shows in the evening; the shows in the business district are 
open continuously from 9 a. m. to 11 p. m., with two exceptions, 
when the theaters open at 1:30 and 2:30 p. m., respectively. Admis- 
sion is usually five cents, and a few houses charge ten cents for adults 
and a nickel for children. 

During the survey an actual count of the attendance at sixty-' 
three of the moving, picture theaters was made on a Monday early 
in October, and it was found that they were patronized by 55,593 
persons in one day. The combined seating capacity of these theaters 
was 25,796, the attendance a little over two persons to a seat. Not 
counting, the incompleted theaters, or five picture shows which were 
found closed on the day of the investigation, on this average of two 
persons to a seat, 44,636 people went to the theaters which were not 
covered in the count. This means that a total of 100,229 persons, 
or over one-fourth of the city's population, attended moving picture 
shows in one day. On this basis, 701,603 people enjoy this form of 
amusement in one week; a conservative estimate, as.it does not 
allow for the extra shows and larger audiences on Saturdays and 
Sundays. 

While the investigators were taking the count, facts were noted 
in many instances concerning the attendance of children and young 
people and the character of the films which were shown. 

Character of Audience. 

A large majority of the people who make up moving picture day- 
time audiences are adult men. An occasional woman on her way 
from shopping or market, sometimes accompanied by little children ; 
a small number of boys and youths, and a few young girls about 
fifteen years of age (evidently out of work or playing truant from 
school), who come to the theater in the hope of picking up new 
acquaintances, are the other patrons. During the noon hour this 
order varies for a little while and the places are crowded with young 



RECRKATION SURVEY OF CINCINNATf. 27 

people from store and factory and youths from the downtown high 
school. In the evenint^- the character of the audience changes again 
and the theaters in the business district have evenly mixed audi- 
ences, while in the residential districts the audiences are often largely 
composed of women and children. About 33 per cent of these audi- 
ences were under 21 years of age, about 11 per cent oi whom were 
under 10 years of age. The children, however, were found in attend- 
ance chiefly at the early performances, and were noticed in only 
small numbers at the last show. 

Character of Films. 

The character of the films shown, except in three instances, was 
unobjectionable and provided clean recreation. The subjects were 
usually melodramatic or of a comic or farcical nature. The Wild 
West pictures are still popular, although not seen as frequently as 
formerly. Films of distinctly educational and of high recreational 
value are frequently shown. Slides of events of current interest, 
pictures of noted people, interesting views of foreign places are often 
seen as part of the program, while standard plays given by good 
actors are now being performed for audiences of the moving picture 
theater. There can be no doubt that the quality of recreation of- 
fered by the moving picture show has vastly improved in thejast 
few 3^ears, and is still improving. 

The objectionable films referred to above showed a coarse 
gambling scene ; another revolved around the life of a dope fiend ; 
the last gave a suggestive story of the life of a bad woman. It is 
the possibility of films of this character being produced, which, of 
course, detracts from the recreational value of moving pictures, par- 
ticularly where children are concerned. In them is especially strong 
that desire to participate passively in experiences of life beyond 
their everyday routine, and active suggestions of evil acts or vivid 
examples of demoralizing habits cannot but react on character 
development. 

Posters. 

The posters displayed outside of the theaters cannot be as fa- 
vorably commented on as the films. In most instances they are 
sensational, drawn on exaggerated lines and luridly colored. The 
films which they advertise are usually harmless enough ; the posters 
always exceed the performance. The number of children which 
crowd the entrances of the picture shows each evening, particularly 
in the residential districts, cannot be benefited or wholesomely en- 
tertained bv a study of a poster portraying in lurid' colors a woman 
of nearly life size sprawling over a prostrate man ; or of a woman 
in a man's bathing suit extended full length in the act of diving; 
or of men stabl)ing' each other, or similar subjects. 

Supervision. 

For several years most of the films shown in the United States 
have been censored by a voluntary committee known as the National 
Board of Censors. Ohio last vear created an official State Board 



.28 RECREATION SURVEY OF CINCINNATI. 

which must pass upon each film. This step is undoubtedl}^ a good 
one if the board is broad in its views of what constitutes healthy 
entertainment. 

Conclusions. 

The moving picture shows as a whole serve the public well in 
providing good recreation. To absolutely safeguard the people from 
abuse from this form of commercial amusement, however, certain 
improvements in our method of control should be made : 

1. A list of the rejected films and of the 'films in which the elimina- 
tion of certain sections has been ordered should be mailed by the 
State Censorship Board to some competent organization in each 
community for checking" purposes. 

2. The proprietor of moving picture shows ought to be compelled 
. by law to keep the theater auditorium suf^ciently lighted, and 

to install the proper moving picture apparatus, if necessary, to 
enable him to do so. This would facilitate proper ventilation of 
the theaters. 

3. The censorship of picture films ought to be extended to posters 
advertising them. They are seen by more people, and afford 
opportunity for longer perusal. The co-operation of the Motion 
Picture Exhibitor's League ought to be secured to that end. 

Theaters. 

There are eleven theaters in Cincinnati ; ten are located in the 
downtown business district and one in the suburbs. The type of 
theaters and the total seating capacity is shown in the following' 
table : 

Seating 
Type Number Capacity 

Drama (legitimate) 4 7,249 

Vaudeville 3 4,677 

Burlesque S 4,01 3 

^Melodrama 1 1,800 

Total 11 17,739 

During the survey no study was made of the legitimate drama. 
In such investigations so much depends on the point of view of the 
investigator in determining the recreational value of a play that any 
conclusions arrived at cannot have real weight. The moral phi- 
losophy is too subtle, dramatic interpretation too complex to permit 
a definite classification. Visits were made, however, to the vaude- 
ville and burlesque houses. The type of performance which they 
give is more crude and the dramatic presentation more elemental 
in character, so that it is easier to determine the recreational merits 
of the entertainment offered. 

Two of the vaudeville theaters usually provide excellent amuse- 
ment. On the whole, the entertainment is clean fun. The third 
vaudeville theater gives performances of low character and extreme 



* Changed into a moving picture and vaudeville theater November 16, 1913. 



RECREATION SURVEY. OF CINCINNATI. 2^ 

vulgarit}^ This house is patronized by prostitutes, and sexually 
suggestive acts and speeches cater to the low moral desires of the 
audience. Unfortunately, however, the audiences of this theater, 
which has a seating capacity of 1,400, are largely composed of young- 
men whose mind and morals must be degraded by witnessing such 
a vicious form of entertainment. 

Two of the burlesque houses are uniformly bad. The whole 
performance is of the crudest type and provides only a shallow shell 
for suggestive acts and speeches to excite the sex instincts of the 
audience. Very rarely the performance goes beyond the point of 
vicious suggestion and indulges in openly immoral acts and obscene 
speeches. To our minds, however, the thinly veiled allusions, the 
salacious jokes and the vulgar physical contortions are . far more 
harmful than overt, obscene acts. They undermine more insid- 
iouslv the character and moral viewpoint of the spectator. 

Four-fifths of the people who frequent these theaters are men ; 
about 25 per cent of them are young men between the ages of 18 
and 25. In one instance a child was noticed in the theater accom- 
panying her mother. 

'Drinking and smoking is general in two of these theaters: and 
the patrons frequently become intoxicated. At the end of a twent}^- 
minute intermission at one performance three boys under 21 years 
of age were noticed in that condition. The ventilation in these two 
theaters is poor and the sanitary facilities, as well as those in the 
third vaudeville theater, are unsatisfactory and in poor condition. 

The third burlesque house, being a newer theater, is better 
equipped to provide for the comfort of its patrons. It provides 
decent although crude amusement. 

Conclusions. 

In the interests of the public burlesque and vaudeville perform- 
ances ought to be censored as well as the films produced in moving 
picture shows. The citv ordinance ought also to be amended so that 
sexually suggestive acts and speeches may be repressed in the same 
manner as overt, obscene words or acts. 

Pool and Billiard Rooms, 

Pool and billiards prove to be a popular amusement for men. 
No attempt has been made to estimate the size of the patronage 
of this forni of commercial recreation, as the attendance vanes 
greatly from day to dav and hour to hour. Some idea of its impor- 
tance may be gathered, however, from the following table, which 
shows the number and location of the various rooms and tables: 

Location ^°°"^^ 'Tables 

Downtown business district 10^ "^^^ 

Downtown residential district 354 508 

Suburban residential district 319 458 



Total '*^1 



1,275 



so RECREATION SURVEY OF CINCINNy\TI. 

The majority of these pool rooms are established in connection 
with saloons. Many of them are really nothing more than a pool 
table in the bar room for the convenience of the patrons of the. 
saloon. Some, again, are in connection with cigar stores, candy 
stores, etc. The general price for a game is 2^^ cents a cue. 

The pool room is pre-eminently the meeting place of young 
men. If not playing the game, they loaf about and watch the others 
doing so. It is thus easy for a boy who frequents the -pool room 
to pick up undesirable acquaintances and to acquire the habit of 
gambling. The State has recognized this danger, and although the 
game itself has good recreationah value, it has prohibited a minor 
under 18 years of age from frequenting public pool rooms. During 
the summer investigators discovered only nine boys under 18 years 
of age in visits paid to over seventy pool rooms. Everywhere the 
proprietors spoke of the vigilance of the police and their fear of 
violating the law. The law, however, is effective only as a result 
of constant supervision, and pool rooms would be improved by com- 
ing under the official inspection of a special department of the 
government. 

Shooting Galleries and Bov/ling Alleys. 

These forms of commercial amusement can be classed with pool 
and billiard rooms. The tendency of these places to encourage 
games of chance and to harbor persons of low character depreciates 
their recreational value in the same way as it does that of the pool 
and billiard rooms, and necessitates as strict a supervision. The fol- 
lowing table- shows their number and location existing on July 
1, 1913: 

Downtown Downtown Suburban 

Amusement Business Dist. Residential Dist. Residential Dist. 

Shooting Gallery 3 

Bowling Alley 8 5 8 

Saloons and Beer Gardens. 

The saloon as an important factor in recreation must -not be 
overlooked. Up to November 24, 1913, Cincinnati had 1,334 such 
places ; the new liquor license law will limit the number to 802. The 
saloon is the social club-house of the man of modest means. It is 
there he meets' his cronies, indulges in gossip and talks over the 
political situation. It is in the saloon sitting-room that he enjoys 
his card game, and, as already noted, many co-operative social clubs 
use it for their meeting-place. As long as there 'has not been pro- 
vided public facility for social intercourse, and free, easily secured 
meeting-places for clubs and social groups, the saloon has performed 
a valuable service as far as promoting recreation is concerned, and 
the effect of degrading social activities by closely connecting them 
with the sale of liquor must not be blamed ^altogether upon the 
saloon. 

In the summer innumerable saloons with a little yard space, 
especially if they are located on the hilltops, open beer gardens. 
The quality of recreation furnished by these gardens during the past 



RECREATION SURVEY OF CINCINNATI. fM 

summer was on the whole delightful. They are patronized chiefl}' 
by family groups who come to spend a quiet evening together. 
With two exceptions, when the moral tone of the place was low, the 
conduct of these gardens was quiet and orderly. 

Public Dance Halls and Dancing Academies. 

Next to dramatic entertainment, dancing probably makes the 
strongest appeal to young people. To the adolescent girl especially 
the rythm of the dance seems to afford an opportunity for self- 
expression which no other means provides. To the young woman 
who has gone to work it is the outlet for emotional excitement which 
monotonous employment has stifled within her all day. It fills the 
same part in her life as athletics does in that of the boy's, although 
young men are also fond of dancing. At present, however, the only 
method of gratifying this normal desire for the majority of people 
has been to go to a commercial dance hall. 

There are twenty-seven places in Cincinnati where public dances 
are regularly conducted. Eleven of these might be termed dancing 
academies where class instruction in dancing is given. Most of 
these dancing academies, however, have public dances on Saturday 
and Sunday nights; in fact, a line cannot be easily drawn between 
the two types. 

A count was taken of the attendance at fourteen of these public 
dances on a Saturday and Sunday evening in October. The attend- 
ance on the Sunday night was 2,640 (and ticket takers in several 
instances told the investigators that business was dull), and on 
Saturday night was 4,239. Estimating the attendance at the dance 
halls in which the count was 'not taken, according to their size and 
location, at least fi.GOO people dance on a Saturday evening in Cin- 
cinnati. 

A careful investigation was made of the conditions under which 
these 6,000 people dance. Seventeen dance halls were inspected, and 
a number of them were visited several times. 

The quality of recreation provided by four-fifths of the commer- 
cial dance halls in Cincinnati is of the' lowest order. Many of them 
are connected with saloons or have a bar on the dance floor proper. 
The dance in these places often degenerates into a drunken orgy ; 
in any case it is used as a means to increase the sale of liquor. Even 
in those dance halls where soft drinks only are served, except in 
perhaps three instances, the supervision is inadequate and "tough" 
dancing is the general rule. 

Masquerade balls are frequent and are particularly pernicious, 
as they serve to heighten the boisterous conduct. Minors are found 
in many of the halls and they are frequently served with liquor. 
Some very little children were noted, who played around the dirty 
floors while their parents enjoyed the dance. Prostitutes and other 
people of low character were found to frequent the larger dance 
halls and mingle with the crowds of young working girls and men 
who came to seek innocent pleasure. 



8*2 RECREATION SURVEY OF CINCINNATI. 

The dance halls are usually located on the second floor of a 
building-, and there is only one really up-to-date dance hall in Cin- 
cinnati. Many of the floors are poor, dirty, slopped with liquor and 
littered with cards announcing future dances. The toilet facilities 
are very bad, and in some places the toilets for both men and women 
are in conspicuous places where they must be constantly passed by 
the couples, and are usually in close connection with the bar-room. 
In one instance patrons had to cross the length of a saloon sitting 
room to be able to check their wraps. 

Among the few places which ofi^er opportunity- for wholesome 
pleasure is the ''popular supervised dance" conducted every Satur- 
day evening in the north wing of Music Hall by the Woman's Civic 
Commission. Although the admission charge is only fifteen cents, 
when at the other halls it is a quarter, the dance is self-supporting. 
A good band provides the music; members of the Commission super- 
vise in person, and ice cream and soft drinks can be secured at one 
en)d of the hall. No return checks are given. This dance is patron- 
ized largely by people who never attended public dances before, 
and does not really compete with the bad commercial dance halls. 
Nevertheless, it is a splendid public experiment and meets a need 
in the community. 

Aside from these regular dance halls and academies there are a 
number of public halls which are rented out for special dances, and 
operate under a one-day license.. 

Conclusions. 

The dance halls in Cincinnati in most instances are vicious 
influences in the recreational life of the community. But few of 
them provide opportunity for wholesome pleasure. The sale of 
liquor in connection with a public dance is prohibited by law and 
ought to be strictly enforced. A new dance hall ordinance ought 
to require better standards of supervision on the part of the man- 
agers and a S3^stem of rigid inspection by the municipal authorities. 

Skating Rinks. 

There are two skating rinks in Cincinnati. Their season is from 
the middle of October to the beginning of May. The large rink can 
accommodate 850 to 1,000 couples and is open every afternoon and 
evening. It is brilliantly lighted and well supervised. Only soft 
drinks are served and the atmosphere is diflrerent than that of the 
dance halls. It is patronized largely by boys and girls who are too 
young to go to dances, and as partners are not required, man}'- come 
singly. 

The other rink, which is attended only by colored people, can 
accommodate 280 couples and is open three afternoons a week. Its 
attendance is also largely made up of young boys and girls. The 
place is adequately supervised. 

Skating rinks provide splendid recreation ; the only danger con- 
nected with them is the indifference on the part of the manager as 
to the character of his patrons and the consequent opportunity for 
making undesirable acquaintances. 



RECREATION SURVEY OF CINCINNATI. '^B 

Amusement Parks. 

In the summer amusement parks provide in a great measure the 
amusements which dance halls, pool rooms and other forms of com- 
mercial recreation supply during the winter months. 

Three large commercial amusement parks are patronized by 
Cincinnatians, although one is located in Kentucky. Letters were 
sent to the managers of those places requesting answers to the fol- 
lowing- questions : 

1. What was 3^our attendance for the season of 1912? 

2. What was your average daily attendance for the season of 1912? 

3. Of this number, approximately, what per cent were under 10 
years of age? Between 14 and 18 years of age? 

4. AVhat was your largest attendance in a single day during the 
season of 1912? 

5. How many concessions and exhibitions have you in your park? 

6. What was the length of your season of 1912? 

Two incomplete replies were received. These two parks report 
a total attendance of about 550.000. As the amusement park which 
did not reply is considerably larger than the other two and has 
about ten more concessions and exhibitions, it is estimated that at 
least 950,000 people visit these places during the season, of which 
about 15 per cent are under 10 years of age and 20 per cent between 
14 and 18 years of age. The season is usually from Decoration Day 
to Labor Day. The largest attendance on a single day was reported 
by one manager as 12,000. 

The quality of recreation provided by the amusement parks is 
on the whole poor. Lack of strict supervision and the indifference 
on the part of managers to the character and general conduct of 
their patrons lowers the moral tone and makes the attendance at 
these places dangerous for young people. Conduct is permitted in 
two of these parks which would not be tolerated for a. moment in 
any public place. In one park a woman was seen sitting at a table 
alone and openlv soliciting, while private policemen and waiters 
were near at hand. It is the custom in this same park for young 
girls to walk around the lake until they pick up an acquaintance 
with men, when the couples frequently leaVe the park together. To 
accomplish their purpose the girls may walk around the circle fifty 
times and nobodv interfere. As long' as boisterous and disorderly 
conduct is suppressed the management thinks it has done its duty. 
Places which 'would be quickly open to criticism if unsupervised 
receive strict attention. The open air dance hall, for instance, is 
carefully supervised and no "tough" dancing is permitted. This 
same pa'rk showed obscene pictures in a "Penny Arcade" all summer, 
and the concession was always crowded with young men and girls, 
often in couples. 

In the second park open immorality takes place with the con- 
nivance or through the indifference of the management. A stretch 
of woody hillside beyond a lake walk is kept absolutely unlighted 



84 RECREATION SURVEY OF CINCINNATI. 

and unsupervised, and it is current talk among the habitues of the 
park that "anything goes" there. 

In the third park the recreational conditions are fair, because 
the management supervises more carefully. 

All the three parks have darkened concessions and exhibitions. 
As they usually are forms of amusement which involve emotional 
excitement, the moral danger is accordingly increased. Most of the 
concessions provide crude or coarse amusement. One park, in a 
concession called "Hilarity Hall" creates amusement by having the 
skirts of the women blown about by puffs of air forced through 
holes in the fioor. In the same concession is located the "Dippy 
House," a long dark passage with trick floors, moving stairways, 
walls, and slides in which the patrons' are jounced about and finally 
emerge helter skelter at the other end into a small, dark room. 

The most popular concessions in this park are "Hilarity Hall" 
and the Cabaret shows. "The Thriller," or scenic railway, seems to 
rank next in favor. 

Conclusions, 

Persons who wish to operate amusement parks ought to be re- 
quired by law to secure a license so as to come under public control. 

Excursion Boats. 

One of the amusement parks can be reached by a river trip, and 
two excursion boats make five round trips daily. During the past 
summer the recreational conditions on these boats were much im- 
proved over other seasons. In the early part of the summer one 
of the boats was not properly supervised ; there was no matron in 
the woman's retiring room and the decks were insufficiently lighted 
and patrolled. Later, after several conferences with a representative 
of the company, a matron was installed, and the captain or first 
mate made half-hourly rounds of the decks. The lighting on one 
of the boats, however, was never satisfactorily improved, the upper 
deck remaining in total darkness throughout the season. The sani- 
tary conditions on both boats were very bad; common towels and 
hair brushes were also in use. Later these were removed and the 
places cleaned up. 

A dance is conducted in the salon of the boat. Two private 
r)olicemen were in constant attendance and no "tough" dancing was 
allov.^ed. A bar is located on the deck below, and after each dance 
the majority of young men left their partners and went down to get 
a drink. Very few of the young women frequented the bar-room. 
During the season, however, fifteen prostitutes were noticed drink- 
ing in the bar-room, where they usually remained during the whole 
evening. On several occasions there was disorderly conduct which 
had to be suppressed by the private policemen. 

Other excursion boats make trips to farther points up and down 
the river ; these trips usually last three da3^s. These boats were 
not investigated. 



RECREATION SURVEY OF CINCINNATI. 85 

Bathing Beaches. 

Cincinnati has no bathing beaches of its own. The shore on the 
Ohio side of the Ohio River is spoiled for recreation purposes by 
its commercial use. On the Kentucky side of the river, however, 
there is a fairly good, sandy beach. This beach is used by the people 
of Cincinnati as well as by the smaller towns along the Kentucky 
bank. It is hard, therefore, to estimate the number of people from 
our city who use the bathing beaches each summer. 

There are two large commercial bathing beaches, one with a 
capacity of 500 rooms and the other with a capacity of 1,000 rooms, 
and innumerable private houses along the river bank which will 
take in and accommodate a few people. The manager of one of 
these beaches reports that he accommodates from fifteen to twenty 
thousand people during the season, which is from June 15th to Sep- 
tember 20th, and that the maximum number in one day was about 
ten thousand. The manager of the other beach reports that he 
accommodates fully 100,000 people during the summer and that the 
maximum attendance was about 25,000. He thinks, however, that 
the private houses along the bank accommodate fully half of the 
people who make use of the river. On this basis, about 2-40,000 
people of Cincinnati and the neighboring towns in Kentucky use 
the beach during the summer. 

Bv closing the bathing beaches at 7 p. m. last summer, many 
difficulties experienced in the past were overcome, and immorality 
was reduced to a minimum. The moral tone of the beach, however, 
could be greatly improved by effective patrolling and supervision. 
Last summer there was only one private policeman on the beach, 
who in emergencies sought the assistance of the Dayton and Belle- 
vue police. This aid had to be called for on two occasions last 
summer to put a stop to gambling. 

The larger of the two commercial beaches has a saloon and 
stand on beach property. Its dressing rooms are often very dirty, 
and it had inadequate provisions for shower baths. 

Conclusions. 

Commercial recreation, if supervised, pnn'ides splendid facility 
for amusement. Unsupervised, it is a menace to the wholesome 
life of the community and is easily turned into an instrument for 
the furthering of vice. Cincinnati needs new and better methods 
for supervising its commercial recreation. 

IV. PUBLIC RECREATION. 

The commuiiitv has in late years recognized the inadequacy of 
home recreation and the iieces'sity of supplementing it. Home 
recreation, however, was constantly safeguarded by the unconscious 
or conscious supervision of each member of the family groups over 
the other, and it was soon found that public recreation without 
svstematic and thorough supervision was as unhealthy as no recrea- 
tion at all. This part of the report, therefore, which deals with the 
facilities for public recreation emphasizes the present provision for 
its supervision. 



86 RECREATION SURVEY OF CINCINNATI. 

The School Plant. 

There are sixty-eight public school buildings in Cincinnati main- 
tained and managed by the Board of Education. Only twelve of 
these buildings are used to their full capacity at the present time. 
During the winter of 1912-13 nine school buildings were not used 
at all except for regular day school purposes. Eight schools reported 
that their gymnasiums were used once or twice a week by regularly 
organized clubs or classes, and others that they were used occa- 
sionally. Thirty-one schools report the meeting at the school build- 
ing, (usually once a month) of Mothers' Clubs; eleven that the 
Neighborhood Improvement Associations make use of the school 
once a month; sixteen that they provide a meeting place for other 
clubs and classes— i. e., Class in Folk Dancing, Woman's Art Class, 
Band Practice, Children of the Republic, Woman's Millinery Class, 
etc. ; fourteen the use of the school buildi-ng for special neighborhood 
parties, sales and entertainments ; and six the use of the auditorium 
for occasional lectures. 

Only two of all the schools have anything approaching regu- 
larly organized social center activity. Both the Douglass and the 
Washburn schools report clubs for men, women, boys and girls, 
with social programs. These schools, however, are not used to their 
fullest capacity. 

April 14, 1913, the Board of Education adopted a program for the 
establishment of social centers. A Social Center Director has been 
appointed, who is to work under the direction of the Superintendent 
of Schools. 

Public Libraries. 

Aside from the opportunities for reading, the Public Library 
and its branches provide facilities for recreation. The Main Library 
and eight of the Branch Libraries have rooms or auditoriums which 
can be secured for recreation purposes. These rooms are used fre- 
quently for lectures, concerts, entertainments, social clubs, and 
children's story hours. The Boy Scouts often meet in the Public 
Libraries. 

Public Outdoor Recreation. 
Parks. 

Not counting small plots of land laid out in parks solely to 
beautify the city, Cincinnati has under the management of the Park 
Board thirty public parks and parkways with a total area of 1,879.6 
acres. Most of this property (in fact all but 254.3 acres of it) is 
located, of course, in the suburban districts of the city. A great 
deal of it is at the present time unimproved. The importance of 
this form of recreation cannot be estimated in figures. The drives, 
the walks and picnic grounds, the beautiful vistas and quiet nooks 
in woody places provide especially for the youth and the adult 
valuable forms of recreation. Several of the newer parks are at the 
present time rather inaccessible, necessitating quite a walk from the 
nearest car line to the park proper. The Park Board reports, how- 



RFXRRATION SURVEY OF CINCINNATI. 6l 

ever, tliat Ljeneral plans to facilitate their use are in progress or 
will be consummated in the future. 

Ault Park on the east is approached by a fifteen-minute walk 
from the Madison cars. In the plan for the improvement of this 
property, as well as in the improvement of surrounding private 
properties, car lines are under consideration, and new roads and 
entrances are being placed which will make the park accessible.- 
Mt. Echo Park is directly on the Elberon Avenue car line. A 
new entrance is under construction at the present time which will 
make this property most accessible. Mt. Airy, stretching from the 
Colerain Pike to Westwood, will be easily reached as soon as the 
Colerain car line is extended along the Colerain Pike ; in fact, it will 
border the park on the north. Blackley Farm, in North Avondale, 
will not only be accessible by the construction of the new Bond 
Hill car line along Reading Road, but will actually have a car line 
running through the park. 

Public parks do not need the same supervision as playgrounds. 
They need, howeA'er, to be thoroughly policed to prevent rowdyism 
and that disorder which is often the expression of crowd excitement 
when a group of young people get together. They should, moreover, 
be adequately lighted to make thorough policing possible and to 
discourage improper conduct. 

Our parks were not adequately supervised during the summer 
of 1913. The responsibility for supervision was divided between 
the Park Boafd and the Director of Public Safety through the 
Police Department. The Park Board employed only one park 
policemen at Eden Park, Washington Park, Inwood Park, Burnet 
Woods, and Lincoln Park. The regular city policeman on the 
beat was also supposed to patrol these parks. At each of its play- 
grounds the Park Board employed one caretaker, and at Sinton, 
McKinley and Mt. Echo Parks, one private watchman in addition. 
Supervision of all other park property depended solely upon the 
occasional inspection of the city police in the neighborhood, and 
investigation proved that it was no't possible .for them to do 
more than to take a cursory glance into the parks. It js self- 
evident that one private policeman, and an occasional visit from a 
mounted officer of the city police, is inadequate supervision for 
Burnet A^'oods and Eden Park. Lincoln Park sufifered also from 
lack of a sufficient number of supervisors. While the park police- 
man was on one side of the lake, rowdyism went on unchecked on 
the other. The park police force, however, was of necessity small 
owing to the lack of funds at the command of the Board of Park 
Commissioners for the supervision and maintenance of their numer- 
ous properties. The Board had asked for ample funds for policing 
park properties in 1913, but the necessity of cutting down the whole 
city budget forced them to reduce their police force to six men. 
During the summer one motorcycle man was instituted to increase 
the efficiency of the supervision, and worked so well that more will 
be used the coming season. 

The lighting of the parks and playgrounds in general was fairly 
STood last summer. 



38 RECREATION SURVEY OF CINCINNATI. 

Park Playgrounds. 

The city of Cincinnati owns, under the management, of the 
Board of Park Commissioners, thirteen playgrounds with a total 
area of 14.9 acres ; five tennis courts, two golf links and nine athletic 
fields with a total of 87.9 acres. 

Three more small playgrounds, with a total area of 2.1 acres, 
are in the process of construction. The playgrounds remain open 
only four months during the year, from May 15 to October 31. 

These playgrounds, with three exceptions, are very small and 
have considerable space taken up with play equipment, such as 
swings, slides, sand-piles, wading pools and rest houses. It is the 
Park Board's purpose to provide opportunity for plav for children 
from two to sixteen years of age. The type of playground and the 
form of equipment just described, however, are adapted only for 
use of the child between two and thirteen years of age, and no 
special provision is made for the boys and girls between thirteen 
and sixteen, although the law prevents them from going to work. 

Eight of the public playgrounds are in the downtown residential 
or congested districts of the city, with a total area of 6.5 acres. 
Eleven of them are in that section of the city bounded by McMillan 
street on the north, the Ohio River on the south, McLean avenue 
on the west, and Kemper Lane on the east, in which, according to 
the census made by our Association of the child population from 
two to eighteen years of age, live 50,003 children. 

Reckoning on the basis that three hundred children are the 
maximum number who can play on an acre, which is the figure 
arrived at by the London School Board, the Playground and Recrea- 
tion Association of America, and the Secretary of the local Board 
of Park Commissioners, in the section of the city where these 50,003 
children live, public playgrounds have been provided for but 3,360 
of them to pla}^ at one time. 

Only two athletic fields, with a total of six baseball diamonds, 
are located in this section of the city on its eastern and northern 
boundaries. To reach the nearest athletic field from the western 
boundary of this section would necessitate a street car ride of at 
least twenty minutes or a walk of about three miles. This field has 
space for l5ut one diamond, so even if the children had enough 
energy to walk this distance in after-school hours they could not 
possibly find opportunity to play. - 

Twenty baseball diamonds in all are provided in the various 
athletic fields throughout the city. Permits for their use are re- 
quired on Saturdays and Sundays. They are in general patronized 
by the older boys and men. Only "playground baseball," played 
with a large, soft indoor baseball, is permitted in the playgrounds. 

Table IX shows the location of the public pla}^ spaces and their 
adequacy in meeting the city's needs : 



Ri:tRKATION SURVEY OF CINCINNATI. B9 

TABLE IX. 
Density of Child Population and Public Play Space. 

Per Cent of 

Total Cliild Per Cent of Play _ Athletic 

Ward Population Total Area Play Ground Athletic Fields 

of City from of City Grounds Acreage Fields Acreage 

6 to 17 ycarsj 

1 4.1 1.').4 ... Turkey Ridge fi. 

2 4. .-5 8. . ... East End Ball. 

Grounds 7. 

?, 4.f) :;. Walnut Hills 1.2 Evanston 

Ball Ground 5.2 

4 2.4 1.6 ... Deer Creek 

Common 12.8 

5 4.") .4 Sycamore .4 ... 

G 2.3 ..5 

7 3.2 .2 Washington* ... 

8 2.3 1. Lytic .4 

Pearl .4 

9 3.2 1.4 Filson Out- 

look 1.9 

10 4.0 .4 Inwood 1.3 

McMicken .0 

11 4.4 1.2 Mohawkf .0 

Hanna 1. ... 

12 3.8 .7 Western and 

McLeant .3 

13 3.1 8. Pleasant Ridge 

Woodward 2. .5 

14 4.3 .4 

15 3.8 .2 McKinley 1.2 

16 4.2 .4 

17 4. (J 1.2 Lincoln 1.8 

18 4. .4 Sintnn 1.7 

19 4.1 3.7 Oyler* 

20 6.0 7.3 Riverside* ... DempseyPark 10. 

Warsaw and 

Woodlawnf 1.1 ]\It. Echo Park 7. 

21 :'..s .4 Hulbert ..'> . , . 

22 3.1 2. ... Taft Field 13.5 

23 4.9 3.2 Edgewood* 

24 5.0 10. N. Fairmount* .;: Lick Run Ball 

Ground 7. 

25 2.9 14.5 Westwood 

Commons 21.2 
26 3.1 14.5 ... ... 

100. 100. 

It will be noticed that the adjt)inino- seventh, tenth and fifteenth 
wards, which have 11 per cent of the total child population of the 
city livini? in -/lo per cent of the city's total area, are only provided 
with public play space to the amount of 3.1 acres. 

This intense congestion has been brought on several occasions 
lo the attention of the Park Board, with the suggestion that a play- 
ground be established in the northern section of the Seventh Ward. 
The general plan of the Park Board is to establish playgrounds in 
the congested districts a half-mile distant from each other, thus 

* Contemplated playgrounds. 

V Playgrounds in the course of construction. , r^ , , ^ 

t Figures for Wards 2, 3, 12, 13, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 taken from the School Census, 
1913; others from Police Census., December, 1912. 



40 ■ RECREATION SURVEY OF CINCINNATI. 

covering the dense population of the city with a chain of play- 
grounds. The Park Board reports that this plan also includes the 
consideration of the more pressing needs of a neighborhood due to 
congestion of population, and that its first contemplated action for 
the partial relief of the children in this congested section is the 
establishment of a playground in the northern end of Washington 
Park.. This Washington Park playground will not preclude, how- 
ever, the establishment at some other time of an additional play- 
ground further north in this over-populated district. 

Present Supervisory Force, 

The Park Board employed during the four months' season of 
1913, twenty instructors and one supervisor. Three instructors re- 
ceived a salary of $80 a month, three a salary of $75 a month, one 
a salary of $70 a month, four a salary of $60 a month, and nine a 
salary of $50 a month. The supervisor receives $100 a month. The 
athletic fields are not supervised except at the greatest play periods, 
namely, Saturday afternoons and Sundays. 

The cost of maintaining the playgrounds under the Park Board 
was $12,901.95 for 1913. 

Attendance. 

Seven hundred and ninety-three thousand four hundred and 
thirty (793,430) children attended public playgrounds during the 
summer of 1913.**''' 
School Playgrounds. 

Ten after-school playgrounds (eight in the section of the city 
covered by our census) were conducted in 1913 by the School Board 
from April 15 to the close of school, and from September 10 to 
October 31. Five school playgrounds were also kept open under 
supervision for ten weeks during the summer. The school play- 
gro'Unds are in the majority of instances very small. 

The School Board employed to supervise the playgrounds 
thirty-nine teachers at $15 a week, one director at $39 a week, and 
one assistant director at $30 a week. 

It expended $1,354.25 on its after-school playgrounds for the 
spring term, and $5,160.55 for maintaining the vacation playgrounds. 
The attendance was 95,482.* 

Streets. 

From the survey of three soundings already mentioned, under- 
taken to ascertain the amount of space usable for play, it was found 
that streets and alleys take up from 30% to 70% of the total area 
of a neighborhood. It has also been shown that many children are 
solely dependent upon the facilities provided by the streets for any 
form of outdoor recreation. The streets, therefore^ must be re- 
garded at the present time as an important public provision for 
recreation, and ought to be supervised accordingly. Plans for their 
wider use can be worked out by the establishment of play zones in 
congested districts to supplement inadequate play space. 

*** Reported by the Board of Park Commissioners. 
* Reported by the Director of . School Playgrounds. 



Rf'XREATION SURVEY OF CINCINNATI, 41 

Conclusion. 

Cincinnati lacks at the present time adequate public provision 
for recreation. How its present facilities can be supplemented and 
developed to meet the recreational needs of the city is discussed in 
the last section of this report. 

V. THE COLORED CHILD AND YOUTH. 

We have so far considered the recreational facilities provided 
for the people as a whole. Although provisions for amusement may 
be adequate in a locality for the persons of that neighborhood in 
general, the needs of a particular group mav not have been met. 
Foreign immigrants require special forms of recreation, adapted to 
their customs and habits, and the same is especially true of the col- 
ored people, where prejudice and the fundamental objections to 
social intercourse between the white and black races excludes them 
from the use of facilities for recreation patronized by their neigh- 
bors. This condition is particularly disastrous to the' growing col- 
ored boy and girl. 

Two big colored settlements in t)ur city are located in Walnut 
Hills and the West End. Recreation for colored children and 
young people in Walnut Hills is somewhat provided for by the 
social center activities of the Douglas School, with the Chapel Street 
playground in close proximity. The children and vouth who 
live downtown, however, have absolutely no facilities for whole- 
some play. There are two picture shows' on Fifth street which are 
wholly patronized by them, a colored dance hall on Sixth street, a 
few pool rooms and saloons which are open to them, and a skating 
rink on Poplar street, to which they come from all parts of the city. 
No social agency has .as yet been concerned with the recreational 
life of the colored boy or girl, although 15 per cent ol delinquent 
boys and 29 per cent of the delinquent girls* are colored while only 
5.4 per cent** of our entire population is composed of colered people. 
The Y. M. C. A., it is true, is working to secure a colored branch 
of its organization, but it would solve none of the problems relating 
to the lack of opportunities for recreation for the young colored 
child, the adolescent colored girl or adult woman. 
Density of Colored Child Population. 

The center of the colored population downtown is about Eighth 
and Mound streets. Table X shows the distribution of the colored 
child population by wards. 

TABLE X. Colored Children 

_ , J ^1 .1 J T. ■■ • between 2 and 18 

Ward Colored Child Population. years of aget 

fi '. . .209 

7 64 

S 5 

34 

10 19 

11 47 

14 81 

15 123 

Ifi 56o 

17 3fi9 

18 • 5fifi 

21 51 

* Juvenile Court Report of the year 1913. 

** United States Census, 1910. 

t Figures taken from the Police Census, December, 1912. 



42 RECREATION SURVEY OF CINCINNATI. 

The adjoining Eighteenth, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Wards 
(mentioned according to location) have 1,490 children and young 
people without any means for wholesome play. In the Fifteenth 
Ward, which adjoins the Eighteenth immediately to the north, are 
123 more. 

The sixty-four children in the Seventh Ward are nearly all on 
Providence street, and those in the Sixth Ward are centered around 
New and McAlister streets. 

Sinton playground is the public play space provided in the West 
End and is surrounded by the colored settlement. Every summer 
there is friction in the park between the white and black children. 

Conclusion. 

The colored child and 3^outh in the downtown districts have no 
wholesome means for recreation. The community ought, therefore, 
provide them with public facilities by opening a social center for 
their use. 

SECTION C. ADMINISTRATION. 

The development of adequate and wholesome recreation de- 
pends in a great measure upon the government's method of fostering 
and controlling it. Cincinnati has neither recognized the fact that 
the people's pleasures are in their way as important as the people's 
health, nor that the various forms of recreation are but closely con- 
nected parts of the same problem. In consequence the administra- 
tion of recreation in our city today is handled by different depart- 
ments of the government, sometimes in no way connected with each 
other, and the city sufifers from the lack of • a suitable, closely co- 
ordinated and systematically prosecuted recreation program. 

This section of the report discusses the present method of ad- 
ministration and suggests a way of improving its efficiency. 

I. PRESENT ADMINISTRATION. 

The duties of four of the divisions, of the government which 
touch to a greater or less degree the administration of public recrea- 
tion in Cincinnati, are the Board of Education, the Park Board, the 
Police Department, and the Mayor's ofBce. 

The School Board. 

The School Board is an independent political bod}^ distinct from 
the inunicipal government and elected direct!}^ by the people. Its 
administration covers the establishment and maintenance of school 
playgrounds and social centers. 

The Park Board. 

The Park Board is another independent bod3^ although under the 
control of the municipal government. It consists of three members 
appointed by the Mayor. Its duties involve the establishment, main-, 
tenance, control and supervision of public parks and playgrounds. 
The funds used by the board are granted by appropriation, or se- 
cured through special bond issues approved by the voters. 



R]-:CRIi.\TI()N SUrn'liV OF CliXCIXNATI. 43 

The Mayor's Office. 

The Mayor is s^iven power by hiw to grant or revoke the Hcenses 
of pubhc dance halls, pool rooms, theaters, picture shows, bowling- 
alleys and shooting galleries. He is, therefore, concerned in the 
administration of recreation as far as control of its commercial form 
is concerned. 

The Police Department. 

The function of the Police Department is to enforce the law, 
to maintain order in public places, and to suppress immoral and dis- 
orderly conduct. Its duties involve general supervision over places 
of public amusement. 

II. DEFECTS IN THE PRESENT SYSTEM OF ADMINISTRATION. 

Lack of Unity. 

The chief defect in the present system of administration is that 
it lacks unitv. The Park and School Boards, although they both 
establish and maintain public facilities for recreation, work inde- 
pendently of each other and their efforts are not correlated. Each, 
as it were, is patching the recreational needs of the city instead of 
jointly carrying out a carefully formulated recreation program, 
planned to meet the city's requirements for recreation every day in 
the year. It was only last year that a working agreement was 
reached between the two boards as to the establishment of play- 
grounds. 

The Park Board Not a Board for Public Recreation. 

Another grave defect in the present system is the lack of re- 
sponsibility on the part of any specific department to develop facili- 
ties /or public recreation. It may be argued that the Park Board 
is supposed to fulfill this function. Our Park Boards, how^ever, have 
been primarily interested in the growth of a park and boulevard 
system for the beautifying of Cincinnati. 

Because of this concept of its duties, the Park Board has not 
met the recreational needs of the city in all its aspects. It gives 
too little consideration to and spends too little money on purely 
recreational facilities. For instance, 34.1% of the original bond 
issue of $100,000 was spent for the purchase and development of 
plavgrounds and athletic fields properties. Again, in November, 
]912, the people of Cincinnati authorized a bond issue of $750,000 
for parks and playgrounds. Up to September 1, 1913, bonds to the 
sum of $240,000 were available for use. In spite of the fact that the 
campaign to secure the passage of the bond issue was made largely 
on the ground that playgrounds were urgently needed, only 
$15,608.01, or 6.4 per cent of the sum available has been used for 
playground purposes. 

The Park Board reports that this expenditure does not cover its 
plans for playgrounds out of this fund. They state that they have 



44 RECREATION SURVEY OF CINCINNATI. 

practical plans now for additional expenditures of $20,000 for a 
playground house and pool at Walnut and McMicken streets ; 
$20,000 for a house, pool, etc., in the Seventh Ward,, to be located 
probably in the northern end of AVashington Park ; $20,000 to $25,000 
on the Lincoln Park playground ; $12,000 for additional play facili- 
ties and improvements at Inwood Park ; about $30,000 on nine other 
smaller playgrounds ; $50,000 for the acquisition of land for a new 
playground in the western part of the city, together with other 
numerous improvements, such as dancing platforms, tennis courts, 
croquet grounds. 

Even counting these proposed expenditures only about 23 per 
cent of the total bond issue will have been spent for playgrounds 
and athletic fields. Further, an analysis of these proposed expendi- 
tures shows that very little of the sum is to be used in increasing- 
play space, but will go for buildings and equipment. 

The general tendency in playground construction has been to 
get away from elaborate equipment. Playground apparatus pro- 
vides recreation suitable only for the young child. Boys and girls 
require actual space where under leadership and supervision they 
have opportunity to engage in games and learn to co-operate among 
themselves in securing active exercise and recreation. 

The wisdom of using a limited sum of mone}^ largeh^ for the 
erection of buildings to cost nearly $20,000 in playgrounds which 
frequently do not equal one acre in area, and for the further im- 
provement of playgrounds already established and equipped, may 
well be questioned, especially when a study of Table IX. will show 
how inadequately public play space is meeting the needs of the 
community. 

Lack of Adequate Supervision of Commercial Recreation. 

Although the Mayor is given the power to control commercial 
recreation, no adequate machinery is provided with which to super- 
vise it. The Police Department, which has general supervisory 
powers, is not efficiently equipped to exercise this control. The 
temperament and training for a successful policeman does not 
necessarily fit a man to be an intelligent investigator of recreational 
conditions. In any case the duties of the Police Department are too 
general and too varied to include effective supervision of commercial 
amusement places. 
Opportunity for Friction. 

Under the present system of administration there is continual- 
opportunity for friction. Friction results in lack of voluntary co- 
operation between departments and in decreased administrative 
efficiency. 

III. SUGGESTED ADMINISTRATION. 

The present administration of public recreation in inefficient. 
The system is disjointed, lacks co-ordination and unity of purpose. 
To do away with these defects it is suggested that the various 
powers of administration be centered in one Department or Board. 
This Board could be created by extending the scope of activities of 
the Board of Park Commissioners. It should be known as the 



RI-:CREATION STRVKV OF CIXCIXNATI. 45 

Park and Recreation Board and should consist of five members — 
four to be appointed by the Mayor (one of whom must be a mem- 
ber of the Board of Education), and the Superintendent of Public 
Schools. 

As school property is not under the control of the municipal 
government a Park and Recreation Board in Cincinnati, to be able 
to prosecute successfully any adequate recreation program, must 
be composed in a way to insure the closest co-operation of the 
Board of Education. 

The duties of the Park and Recreation Board should be thr-ee- 
fold : 

1. The acquisition and management of property for use .as public 
parks and playgrounds. 

2. The establishment, management and supervision of all other fa- 
cilities for public recreation, exclusive of public school buildings 
used as social centers. 

3. The supervision of commercial recreation, which shall include 
the power at present vested in the Mayor of granting and revok- 
ing licenses which are required by law. 

Such a board, to be able to fulfill its duties, should have the 
power to appoint salaried executive officers and such other assist- 
ants, supervisors, inspectors, play-leaders and care-takers as may 
prove necessary to efficiently carry out the three functions of the 
Board. 

In order to insure enough money for recreation purposes, the 
present method should be amplified by a provision in the new charter 
to permit the city to assess neighboring property owners for the 
cost of improvement of their propert}^ by the establishment of public 
playgrounds. This method is used successfully in Kansas City. 

Methods of Administration in Other Cities. 

The plan just set forth is not altogether a new one. In 1912 
iort}'-seven cities in the United States had Playground or Recrea- 
tion Commissions. These commissions vary greatly in scope of 
functions. In some cities the Recreation Commission conducts and 
supervises recreational activities, while other boards establish and 
maintain them. In Columbus, Ohio, for instance, a Department of 
Public Recreation was created "to study the recreational needs of 
the city and to have charge and supervision under and with the 
proper officers of the city of all such institutions (playgrounds, 
recreation centers, baths, etc.) now or hereafter to be established." 
In other cities this power is limited by the right of the boards estab- 
lishing and controlling the recreational facilities, to veto plans to 
use them. 

To overcome this difficulty other cities so constitute their 
Recreation Commissions that the co-operation of the various boards 
controlling recreation facilities is to a certain extent insured. In a 
recent recreation survey made in Detroit under the auspices of the 
Board of Commerce, for example, it was recommended that the 
revised city charter include provisions for a Recreation Commission 
to consist of se\'en members — two citizens appointed by the Mayor, 



4(5 RECREATION SURVEY OF CINCINNATI. 

and the Superintendent of Schools, the Park Commissioner, the 
Librarian of the Public Library, the Police Commissioner and the 
Commissioner of Public Work. 

All of these methods have one great defect, however. The 
Recreation Commission has no power to establish recreation facili- 
ties and thus develop a consistent recreation program. The Park, 
School and other boards are the landlords, as it were, of the Recrea- 
tion Board. As it is the natural tendency of each board to seek to 
secure as much of the money as possible to be appropriated by the 
city for recreation, and to spend the funds at its disposal principally 
for the special purpose for which it was created, the result is that 
money expended for public recreation is not as fairly proportioned 
to the city's broad recreational needs as it would be were one board 
held responsible for the entire recreation program. No Recreation 
Board, unless it has the power to establish parks and playgrounds 
where they are needed, can carry out a comprehensive recreation 
program, as a Park Board is interested primarily in the development 
of a boulevard system, and in, all likelihood would use its appro- 
priations in a large measure for that purpose. To divide the respon- 
sibility of establishing and conducting recreational facilities not only 
offers op-portunity for friction between various departments of the 
government, but results in a less economical way of spending the 
people's money and in a less comprehensive recreation program. 

In Cincinnati the State law forces the establishment and super- 
vision of social centers to be the function of an independent political 
board, but in all other matters recreation ought to be treated as a 
unit and the entire responsibility vested in one board. 

SECTION D. SUGGESTIONS FOR AN ADEQUATE RECRE- 
ATION PROGRAM FOR CINCINNATI. 
I. GENERAL RECREATION PROGRAM FOR THE FUTURE. 

A Park and Recreation Board would probably, after careful 
study, formulate a plan to cover the recreational needs of Cincinnati. 
It is not beyond the scope of this report, however, to point out 
various policies and activities which should be included in a com- 
prehensive recreation program. 

A policy with regard to public outdoor recreation should include 
the following provisions : 

1. The School Board should hereafter not erect public school build- 
ings without making ample provisions for school playgrounds. 

2. School playgrounds should be kept open in each neighborhood 
for the use of children from 2 to 13 years of age. ' 

3. The Park and Recreation Board should establish playfields within 
a reasonable distance of each other, especially adapted to the 
needs of young people between the ages of 13 and 17 years, and 
large athletic fields in different sections of the city for adults. 

4. The Recreation and School Boards should jointly employ a 
Playground Supervisor so as to unify methods of supervision. 

5. The system of public parks and parkways as a part of a broad 
recreation system should be developed to keep pace with the 



RI'XRKATION SURVEY OF CINCINNATI. 47 

gTowth of the city, l)ut not at the expense of adequate facilities 

for active outdoor play. 
Such a policy would provide ample opportunity for public out- 
door recreation for people of all ages. At present the situation with 
regard to young people is well described in a teacher's report on 
home conditions of the pupils. "The majority of the children have 
yards in which they can play," she writes, "but they are very dirty 
and dingy, and the children seem to prefer the sidewalk. There are, 
however, three playgrounds in the neighborhood. These, however, 
are patronized by children from eight to twelve years of age, while 
both the younger and the older children seem to prefer the street. 
There are girls and boys who are about fourteen years of age who 
work part of the day only, that is, until about four o'clock. They 
seem to be on the street standing around in groups." 

The Recreation Boards' policy with regard to indoor recreation 
should include the following provisions: 

1. After-school playrooms should be established by the School Board 
to continue the work of the playgrounds during the winter 
months. 

2. A director of Girls' Clubs and a director of Boys' Clubs should 
be appointed to study the needs of the adolescent youth and 
stimulate the establishment of social clubs in exery section of 
the city. These clubs could meet either at social centers or 
public libraries. 

3. Social rooms equipped with facilities for games of various sorts 
should be open nightly in the schoolhouses in congested districts 
for the convenience of young girls and men. 

4. Social center activities conducted by the School Board should 
be along the broadest lines and should include the giving of 
neighborhood dances at regular intervals. 

5. Where the School Board is unable to maintain and conduct a 
social center in a neighborhood lacking sufficient facilities for 
recreation, the Park and Recreation Board should establish and 
maintain recreation centers, as it is done in Chicago, Seattle and 
other cities. 

The policy of the Park and Recreatioil Board with regard to 
the control of commercial recreation should be along the follow- 
ing lines : 

1. All forms of commercial recreation should l)e under constant 
supervision. 

2. This supervision should in no way check the free development 
of commercial recreation, but should increase its recreational 
value. 

II. IMMEDIATE RECREATION NEEDS OF CINCINNATI. 

We have just outlined a general recreation program. There are, 
however, certain things which should be done at once to improve 
our recreation system. Throughout the report specific instances of 
lack of recreational facilities and the lack of power for supervision 
and control have been pointed out. They are gathered in this sec- 
tion of the report into a recreation program to meet the immediate 
ureent needs of Cincinnati. 



48 RECREATION SURVEY OF CINCINNATI. 

With Reference to Public Play Space. 

1. A playground should be established in the northern section of 
the Seventh Ward or the southern section of the Tenth Ward. 

2. An athletic field should be located east of Millcreek to meet the 
needs of the western section of the city. 

3. Until an adequate number of playgrounds are provided, certain 
streets, least used by trafific, should be shut off in the congested 
sections of the city, to be used, under supervision, for play pur- 
poses. 

4. The present playgrounds in the congested section of the city 
should be open twelve months in the year. Seventy-one cities 
in the United States keep 299 centers open throughout the year. 

5. The public parks should be better supervised. 

With Reference to Public Indoor Rrecreation Facilities. 

1. A social center for colored people should be established as near 
Eighth and Mound streets as possible. 

2. A social center should be opened in either the Sixth District or 
Webster Schools. Neither of these buildings are new and espe- 
cially equipped for social center purposes, but the congestion of 
population is so great in that locality that the need is urgent. 
No private agencies provide means for recreation in that neigh- 
borhood. 

3. A social center should be opened at the Washburn School, where 
the density of population is 129.3 persons per acre; at the Sands 
School, where the density of population is 89.3 persons per acre, 
and at the Chase School in Cumminsville, where the density of 
population is 83.4 persons per acre. The Guilford School, al- 
though the newest building and best equipped for social center 
activities, is located in a district where the density of population 
is onlv 30.3 persons per acre. There are, moreover, two social 
agencies in its immediate vicinity affording good opportunities 
for recreation. 

With Reference to the Control of Commercial Recreation. 

1. Steps should be taken to secure the censorship of theatrical 
posters. 

2. Section 879 of the Codification .of Ordinances should be amended 
so as to make it unlawful to permit suggestive acts and speeches 
in an}^ performance or exhibition. 

3. Persons who wish to conduct amusement parks ought to be re- 
quired to secure a license. 

4. An ordinance empowering the city to forbid steam vessels which 
are not sufficiently supervised or lighted to make use of the 
public docks should be passed to provide for control of recrea- 
tional conditions on excursion boats. 

5. A new ordinance for the control of public dance halls should be 
passed, providing special machinery for the inspection of public 
dances by the municipal authorities. 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



019 605 230 6 



